Alexander McQueen (16 March 1969 – 11 February 2010)

"I found his work very interesting and never banal. There was always some attraction to death, his designs were sometimes dehumanized. Who knows, perhaps after flirting with death too often, death attracts you." - Karl Lagerfeld
On Thursday, Alexander McQueen, 40, was found hanged at his luxurious £640,000 ground-floor flat in Mayfair, Central London.
His body was discovered soon after 10am. The designer had been grieving over the death of his mother, Joyce, who died on February 2. He had been due to attend her funeral today.
He had been under pressure to complete his fall 2010 women’s collection for next month’s launch in Paris. His other line, McQ, was due to be shown at New York Fashion Week yesterday but was cancelled.
The designer was also known to be upset that a recent relationship had ended. A man who claimed to be his boyfriend went inside the flat yesterday afternoon and left looking distraught before the body was brought out at 4.30pm. In 2000, McQueen had a civil partnership with the film-maker George Forsyth, but had ended the relationship in 2008 and had started another with a porn star known as Mr Stag.
McQueen, who had an estimated £20 million fortune in 2006, was renowned for his fragile temperament and explosive rage.