Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.
Alexander McQueen
It's a new era in fashion - there are no rules. It's all about the individual and personal style, wearing high-end, low-end, classic labels, and up-and-coming designers all together.
I want to empower women. I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.
Give me time and I'll give you a revolution.
It's good to know where you come from. It makes you what you are today. It's DNA, it's in your blood.
Of course I make mistakes. I'm human. If I didn't make mistakes, I'd never learn. You can only go forward by making mistakes.
There is something sinister, something quite biographical about what I do - but that part is for me. It's my personal business. I think there is a lot of romance, melancholy. There's a sadness to it, but there's romance in sadness. I suppose I am a very melancholy person.
I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists.
I've had good times; I've had bad times.
For a long time I was looking for my perfect equilibrium, my mojo. And now I think I'm getting there: I've found my customer, my silhouette, my cut.
I'm not interested in being liked.
For people who know McQueen, there is always an underlying message. It's usually only the intellectual ones who understand what's going on in what I do.
Youth culture now really looks back and embraces the past, but keeps it contemporary but not sticking to one particular style.
There is a hidden agenda in the fragility of romance.
Nicey nicey just doesn't do it for me.
I think the idea of mixing luxury and mass-market fashion is very modern, very now - no one wears head-to-toe designer anymore.
I just want to be a wallflower. Nondescript. Just not anything. I don't want to see me.
I hate it when people romanticize Scotland.
Really, what I'm aiming for is world domination!
I came to terms with not fitting in a long time ago. I never really fitted in. I don't want to fit in. And now people are buying into that.
I never look at other people's work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions.
Now I design what I want to wear, and it works that way.
I am a melancholy type of person.
I have been skiing since I was in school, but I'm not great. I am never going to break an Olympic record, I just want to go down the hills, on red or blue runs, but not... black.
British fashion is self confident and fearless. It refuses to bow to commerce, thus generating a constant flow of new ideas whilst drawing in British heritage.
When a woman gets dressed up to go out at night, she wants to give 50% away, and hold the rest back. If you're an open book, there's no allure.
I find it grotesque when clothes hit you in the face and there's no room for fault. But I don't expect to turn things around all by myself. I'm not a saint.
You can only go forward by making mistakes.
I come from a different era and I design clothes for our era. I think of people I want to dress when I design.
I always wanted to be a designer. I read books on fashion from the age of 12.
I'm mad in the front of my mind, but business-minded in the back.
You can get insular with fashion.
Clothes and jewellery should be startling, individual. When you see a woman in my clothes, you want to know more about them. To me, that is what distinguishes good designers from bad designers.
I was three years old when I started drawing. I did it all my life.
It's usually only the intellectual ones who understand what's going on in what I do.
Fame should be left to the film stars.
Sting's my ideal man, because he's a real man.
I work with people I admire and respect. It's never because of who they are.
When I'm dead and gone, people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.
Menswear is about subtlety. It's about good style and good taste.
Rap music's been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn't.
You find a lot of ideas from my shows in adverts now. I find it a compliment.
I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.
I am married to work.
I don't want to be too proud, but I have a good personal style.
As a designer, you've always got to push yourself forward; you've always got to keep up with the trends or make your own trends. That's what I do.
The police need to come down to street level.
I want to empower women.
There has to be a balance between your mental satisfaction and the financial needs of your company.
I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I've always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it's late.
