Alexander McQueen's biographer believes he should never have joined Gucci.
Alexander McQueen
In December 2000, 51 per cent of the designer's eponymous label was acquired by the Gucci Group, where he remained Creative Director but Andrew Wilson, writer of 'Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin' believes, in hindsight, it was a mistake for McQueen, who committed suicide in 2010.
He told WWD: "It's really difficult to rewrite somebody else's life, but perhaps he should never have joined Gucci or sold his company to Gucci. After that, he sort of talked about being in a 'gilded prison.'
"As the amount of money increased, the amount of drug use increased and the amount of paranoia. But suicides never, never are simple. I don't want to give a glib answer to this. [In his family], there's horror, murder and Gothicism that go way back."
However, Wilson believes there were many other factors at play in McQueen's tragic life.
He said: "There's no one thing that would have saved him. He lived an intense, extreme life. Whether or not he knew it, he certainly lived his life as if he had to do everything - such as making a collection in two days - as if he would have to enjoy the normal span of an 80-year life within half that span.
"Toward the end of his life, he was saying goodbye to people. [Onetime colleague] Sebastian Pons talked to him and he said, 'I've designed my last collection,' and said that he might kill himself in front of the fashion press at one of his shows. Many people who knew him are still grieving, and will do so for many, many years to come."
Tagged in Alexander McQueen