Short answers, pulled from the story.
Lee Alexander McQueen was a British fashion designer and couturier born on the 17th of March 1969. He founded the Alexander McQueen fashion house in 1992 and served as chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. Over his career he designed 36 womenswear collections, including the skull scarf, the bumster trousers, and the armadillo shoes.
McQueen left school at 16 in 1985 with one O-level in art and trained as a tailor at Newham College, followed by a two-year apprenticeship at Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard. He later studied at Central Saint Martins, funding his tuition with a £4,000 loan from his aunt Renee. His graduation collection, Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims, was bought in its entirety by magazine editor Isabella Blow in 1992.
Several of McQueen's shows are considered landmark fashion moments. The No. 13 finale on the 27th of September 1998, in which model Shalom Harlow was spray-painted by robotic arms, is widely cited as one of the most memorable finales in fashion history. The Voss show for Spring/Summer 2001, which opened with the audience staring at their own reflections for over an hour, was called "probably one of the best pieces of Fashion Theatre I have ever witnessed" by photographer Nick Knight.
Highland Rape, McQueen's Autumn/Winter 1995 collection, depicted models in slashed, torn, and blood-spattered garments. Reviewers interpreted the imagery as glamorising rape and accused McQueen of misogyny. McQueen rejected this, saying the collection referred to "England's rape of Scotland" and was meant to counter other designers' romantic portrayals of Scottish culture.
McQueen was found dead at his home in Green Street, London on the morning of the 11th of February 2010, having hanged himself. He was 40 years old. His mother had died eight days earlier. The Westminster Coroner's Court officially recorded his death as suicide on the 28th of April 2010.
A week after McQueen's death in February 2010, Gucci Group confirmed the brand would continue. McQueen's longtime assistant Sarah Burton was named creative director of Alexander McQueen in May 2010 and presented her first womenswear collection in Paris that September. By the end of 2020, the label had grown to 100 boutiques worldwide, with revenues estimated at €500m.