Read Lady Gaga’s poignant tribute to late designer Alexander McQueen
Five years on from his death, Lady Gaga has penned an emotional tribute to late fashion designer Alexander McQueen.
The openly gay designer, who was the driving force behind fashion label Alexander McQueen, took his own life in 2010 after a battle with depression.
Pop singer Lady Gaga, who was a friend of the designer, has paid tribute to him countless times through her work.
However, the singer’s latest tribute to McQueen is the most poignant yet – after she acquired some rare shoes designed by McQueen through an auction.
In a memo released by V Magazine, she wrote:
There is no diamond, no award, nothing I ever wanted more than a memory of my brief friendship with McQueen.
I am sad every day that I enter my closet, knowing he is not here anymore to dazzle the world with his beautiful, dark, limitless, brave mind.
These shoes are the only tangible piece I have left of our work together. They came to me this morning, after a dream I had again about him. As the dream goes, I enter my closet and his clothes are no longer there. I’m tortured. The loss is deep.
Mourning in my own way constantly, why he is gone, he was so talented. I hate the empty space, not only in fashion, but in the creative consciousness that fizzled when he passed.
This morning I got the call I would now be the caregiver to 3 pairs of armadillo platforms, just like the kind I wore in the “Bad Romance” video, the shoes from his crescendo collection “Plato’s Atlantis,” the ones that made everyone gasp from the front row because they had NEVER seen something like them before.
I was reminded this morning that he is still here. He is everywhere. In every store window. In the designs of commercial mainstream retail, fashion, in music, in the heart of every young designer that wishes he could be as free and as fearless as McQueen was.
I cried all morning, convinced he was with me. Convinced that I’m loved from somewhere far beyond the eternal body and mind, outside of all the chaos. He wanted me to have them.
They made their way back to me. I am here today not just because of my talent, but because he believed in me.
My weird brand of art pop manic expression of my emotions was the part of me he knew he taught me. I will be grateful long after I pass and join him wherever it is they put souls like us.
Long live McQueen.
The fashion designer is in the running to be immortalised on the next £20 note – after a public contest to find someone from the world of art to feature on the note.
The Bank of England revealed it has received a whopping 29,701 nominations in total – and McQueen made the short-list of 436, which will be whittled down to between three to five names over the next twelve months.
