The McQueen Wheel Spins Round

Fashionista.com Discovers the Origin of the Alexander McQueen 10" heel amphibious platform shoe -- a 1982 glam-rock concert video by The Tubes!

The possibly McQueen-influencing platforms make their appearance starting at around 1:05, following the laugh-in-disbelief bit with the cheerleaders and the man in the micro-mini tennis shorts:

There's nothing new under the sun

For all the talk about models refusing to wear the heels on the catwalk and how impossible they would be to wear in real life, the singer for The Tubes seems to have little problem keeping his balance. Granted, he does tend to use the microphone stand for support, but he also did navigate those stairs with no small amount of skill.

*Pop-Culture Tidbit: Some of you may be more familiar with The Tubes from their appearance in the genre-mashup film Xanadu.

And as long as we're on the subject of Alexander McQueen, Brit newspaper Telegraph UK reported last Friday that young uber-goth designer Gareth Pugh was whispered to be in talks with PPR/Gucci Group to take over the helm at the Alexander McQueen label: "Just a week after Alexander McQueen's funeral, the company in charge of his fashion label is believed to have identified his successor. Gareth Pugh, 28, is understood to be the designer that PPR wants as the new creative director of Alexander McQueen, of which it owns 51 per cent."

Pugh's representatives quickly issued a statement denying any such talks have taken place between the parties: "To speculative reports earlier this week, Gareth Pugh is not in discussions with Gucci Group about a Creative Director role at Alexander McQueen."

Video clip below of Pugh's recent Fall 2010 collection shown in Paris -- you can see that he has a very definite and full-blown vision. My bet is that Pugh would chafe under consumer and corporate demands to keep the McQueen style legacy alive when he can jolly well create his own.

I've been designing grim so long it looks like happy to me

Fashionologie.com notes that once white-hot designer Olivier Theyskens is unemployed at present, and would make an interesting choice for the McQueen label. Theyskens has designed for Rochas and Nina Ricci, but is said to be notoriously anti-capitalist, anti-marketing and anti-affordable accessories (he considers the fashion industry's pursuit of the dollar at the expense of craft and creativity to be vulgar) -- an attitude that cost him his job at Nina Ricci while arguably contributing to the demise of the House of Rochas. PPR would be more than a little foolish to enter into a deal with Theysken's if he's dragging that particular set of baggage clanking behind.

*Note: Theyskens is like Christian Lacroix and his now defunct House of Lacroix in this respect -- focusing all the attention on the beauty and art of couture and couture detailing when couture is not how a label generates the revenue it needs to stay in business.

Video clip below of the Theysken's swan song for Nina Ricci -- considered his best collection for the label and a possible F.U. to the corporate heads who deemed his work too resolutely uncommercial to appeal to the mainstream.

Take that, you filthy money grubbers!

As you can see, the heel-less platforms are a bit insane, and the models look collectively nervous as they walk the runway. But is this the main reason why fashion-insiders keep lobbing Theysken's name as a potential pick to head the McQueen label -- the freaky, near unwearable shoes? Because god knows the man's "All Art No Business" attitude would sink the McQueen label like a stone.

Last word: fifteen full looks from the final collection that McQueen designed before his death last month were unveiled today for industry insiders at an invite only display in Paris: "The fall collection was inspired by old masters' paintings and filled with ornate embroidery, deep red and gold hues and dramatic capes. According to Women's Wear Daily, when the final look--a coat of golden feathers--made its entrance, spectators' eyes filled with tears."

Fashion critic Suzy Menkes writes that "In this collection Alexander -- Lee -- McQueen showed his sensitivity to history, his powers of research, his imagination, his technical skills and his love of women, often misinterpreted or misunderstood, but here evident in every fold and feather."

You can see photos from the collection here: Alexander McQueen Fall 2010 Collection

I'll wrap this up with a relevant McQueen quote that speaks to this spinning wheel of legacies and successors: "Well I just think that which celebrities are wearing it, what reviews say -- none of it matters . . . I'm 40 now, but I want this to be a company that lives way beyond me, and I believe that customers are more important to making that happen than press. When I'm dead, hopefully this house will still be going. On a spaceship. Hopping up and down above the earth."