Alexander the great

Leaders in the local fashion industry remember British designer Alexander McQueen who died last week.

Karen Inderbitzen-Waller,
stylist/photographer

I was more than saddened to wake up to the startling news of Alexander McQueen's tragic death. Ever since I have been interested in fashion I have followed his work. His classic rags to riches story, along with his swear words written in the linings of Prince Charles's suits during his days as a young apprentice tailor, have always been an inspiration to me.

He was one of the only designers, I feel, working in Paris who was comfortable without referencing the past and always looking ahead to the new and sometimes unimaginable future. I know that many will cite the Spring/Summer 1999 show - where he had robots spray Shalom Harlow as a kind of live installation - as their favourite show, and it must be mentioned for it was like nothing ever seen before.

I had felt the same way in 1998 when I saw he had made wooden legs for double amputee Aimee Mullins and cast her in his runway show. Alexander McQueen really was a visionary, and yet humble like you or me, he was not your typical fashion designer and could have easily been mistaken for a builder or plumber at his local English pub. There will never be another.

Francis Hooper,
World

The loss of Lee McQueen has left a gaping hole. For the past 15 years the Alexander McQueen brand has amazed the fashion world. He was a rare creature, a designer that pushed boundaries, provoked reaction and interaction and didn't give a shit about anything except what he was creating. He was a genius and a leader of his generation. The hottest item this season will be the prawn boot. So fabulous, he was a genius.

Dayne Johnston,
Zambesi Man

I have a documentary of McQueen a friend gave to me many years ago, it's actually on video tape. I have kept it, and in my earlier years as a student it was a great inspiration. I used to watch it many times over. I loved the story of how Isabella Blow discovered him and was his mentor, this is such a sad loss.

Elisabeth Findlay,
Zambesi

Margi (of Nom*d) and I were lucky enough to attend an Alexander McQueen show in London in 1999. It was absolutely incredible. The models in the most amazing sculptural creations were on a circular moving platform and the garments they were wearing were splattered with paint as they pirouetted. I will never forget it.

Dan Ahwa,
Apparel Magazine editor/stylist

I liked it when he tapped into his romantic Goth aesthetic and I'll remember him not only for his originality in design, but in the originality in his runway shows. The most memorable for me include Kate Moss appearing as a floating hologram inside a glass pyramid for Fall 2006; the checkerboard choreography of Spring 2005; and the decaying floral finale gown from Spring 2007. He was one of the few designers who could make you think about fashion as being not just about clothes, but also having the ability to be historically important, political and personal, something that will be missed amid an era of celebrity clothing lines and mediocre fashion.

Noelle McCarthy,
broadcaster

Drama is pity and terror, said Aristotle. Drama is the word that defines the work of Alexander McQueen, pity and terror were the feelings at the heart of the spectacles he created. A giant angel standing guard above a runway, a model on a catwalk with falcons tearing at her hair. An ice-blue gown with a bodice flaring out into a span of feathered wings. Images of his shows stay with us, like fragments of a fever dream, captivating, disorienting, impossible to shake. Alexander Mc Queen made truly exquisite clothes, yet the word "designer" goes no way to describing what he did. Conjuror, necromancer, visionary, shaman, Alexander Mc Queen has left behind a legacy of beauty whose immortality is both the prize and the price of such a vision as he had, a vision that no earthly power could hold.

Chris Lorimer,
stylist/publicist

Alexander McQueen's work transported me to where fashion can be most inspiring, where ideas and dreams distill into something more than just mere "frocks". His shows were breathtaking combinations of theatre and technology: an amputee model in a fairytale pair of wooden legs carved into boots, bandaged wrapped models in a glass box asylum, a sequin masked Joan of Arc in a ring of fire, models as chess pieces, as clowns on the merry-go-round, in a wind tunnel... an overwhelming list, an amazing legacy.