A nice over view of Alexander McQueen. It highlights his career and his fashion philosophy. There was not a lot of new information. The illustrations were wonderful and it was nice to revisit his iconic looks.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to this advanced copy of the book to read.

What Alexander McQueen Can Teach You About Fashion is a gorgeous book with author Ana Finel Honigman’s prose complemented by illustrations and photographs (each with its own description).

This book teaches us about so much more than fashion. Through thorough research into fashion icon Alexander McQueen’s life and career and thoughtful recollections from longtime friends and colleagues, Honigman shares valuable life, career, and creative lessons. She brings McQueen back to technicolor life, a comet that flared brightly, illuminating everyone and everything in its path, before being extinguished far too quickly.

Twelve years following his passing, Alexander McQueen remains a renowned and respected name in the fashion industry. The styles, just like the man, continue to be bold, sassy, and difficult to ignore. This beautiful book is another time capsule containing the spirit and essence of McQueen’s creative soul.

“The world needs fantasy, not reality. We have enough reality today.”

As someone that has admired Alexander McQueen's work and would always, and I still do, use his work as influence during my years of studying fashion, this book certainly answers questions and brings to light a lot of what McQueen wanted to convey through his work, what we should all think about when designing. I still design in my spare time, I still have my mood boards that are full with his work Alexander brought so much fantasy to the world and stepped so far out of the box that fashion was and encourages us all to do the same, throw some fantasy in there, go against the grain and have fun doing it.

While this book is a little repetitive with quotes, and not as in depth into the subject as I would have loved it to have been this book, What Alexander McQueen Can Teach You About Fashion would not only be a great coffee table book but also a great gift and a wealthy source of research for any aspiring fashion designers.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved discovering the world of one of the best fashion designers that the world had ever known, his work is immortal.
While reading this book, I used Youtube in order to see what the author was talking about when it came to MCQueen's shows and creations and there is so much more to see and discover about his work. He was a genius and I could not stop watching his fashion shows, it was so fantastic, captivating, addictive and beautiful. I loved all his special designs. He was a real unique artist.

The author talks about his main influences when it came to his creations such as his sexual life, nature, his Scottish heritage with the Tartan, death "memento mori". Himself and his art knew no limits and that's what made it so alluring.

I love art in all its forms and fashion is no exception, this book was so interesting to read as a kind of fashion biography about Alexander McQueen and his legacy to this world.

--For the McQueen Fan--

I received an ARC from the publisher and here are my thoughts:

As someone who admired many of McQueen's over-the-top designs, this book was somewhat interesting. I don't think the book lives up to its promise of teaching anyone about fashion. However, the thoughtful essays give the reader a peak into what made McQueen the designer tick...at least as a designer.

I found the book to be entertaining and did wish it had more photographs of McQueen's fashions.

Ultimately, I think that McQueen's clothing actually does not require much explanation, but the author did a very good job in giving us a glimpse of the designer who never made a boring outfit.

This is a really cool book to read! To be quite honest, I didn't really know what to expect from this book but it ended up surprising me. It's a great read for lovers of fashion.

This book was archived before I could read it, so I bought my own copy and read it today. It is beautifully presented as a physical book. The black and white photograph of McQueen on the cover contrasts with the orange spine and text and the whole thing is graphically well thought out. The sections were interestingly presented and the photographs were great. There were a couple of things that let the book down for me. The first was that the text has been edited really poorly. There are quite a few typos and in one place, lines of text have been repeated. I would accept this in a review copy as you usually receive an uncorrected proof, but this is a published book I paid money for and it's such a shame, given the high quality of the rest of the book. It's also clear that the author is passionate about her subject and this lacklustre editing really lets it down. The second thing is that there are two entire sections dedicated to the iconic McQueen scarf. As I say, it is iconic, so I would definitely expect it to feature, but twice, with virtually identical wording in a book this short and a career as wide and varied as McQueen's seemed a bit of an overkill when the space could have been taken up with something else. I did very much enjoy it and as an introduction to McQueen and his work, it is a great resource.

Developing my interest for fashion after Alexander McQueen left this realm, it was difficult for me to understand his genius and impact. This book answers any question one might have about his work and the influences that shaped it and his intentions.

This book takes the reader into the designer's most important themes. While being organized like this, I bumped into a lot of information and quotes that kept on repeating. Here I note the BDSM influence, his passion and intent for using tartan, his muses, etc. I would have loved for the book to get deeper, to explain more these recurring themes than mentioning them over and over. I also would have loved to encounter a visual for really all the outfits the book features.

This is a short book perfect to gift to fashion aficionados, it's a great introduction to Alexander McQueen's genius, there are so many details we take now for granted that he had the courage to bring forth. For learning this and understanding his extraordinary talent, stance and craft - this book is worth reading.

I received a copy of this in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a great bio on designer Alexander McQueen. As somone who has enjoyed his work for many years and wanted to know more about the man behind the work this provided some great information and insight.

I really thought this book was great, a perfect coffee table book as well.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Been fascinated by this designer since his early days being supported by Isabella Blow. This embraces his legacy and ‘out of the box’ thinking. Still being inspired by his work

I don't know if it is the digital copy provided by the publisher but I really felt this whole book was let down by using low quality photographs. Nothing can really be appreciated fully plus the layout didn't suit, at least on my tablet it looked very choppy. The timeline I also felt was a little haphazard- it seemed to me that arranging things as they happened may have made more sense than showing pictures from a collection then circling back to the same collection in the text then mentioning the same show later on for another reason.
I understand it is a lot of elements to explain as far as concepts, muses, influences and background but I wasn't a fan of the narrative choices. I am a big fan of AMQ since the 1990s which does date me a bit but having such great books and photography available about his work and life this did fall down a little by comparison.

This is certainly the book I'd love to have on my coffee table purely for display purposes. What a book this was, beautifully illustrated & detailed.

Firstly, may I state this is not a “how to” book. It doesn’t contain tips from the late great Alexander McQueen on how to make or wear high fashion. Instead it is a story of his life and his creations, and how they mixed to make one tortured, haunted soul.

I’ll admit I still remember where I was when I heard McQueen had taken his own life. It was February 2010 and I was 16 years old. I was at school for parents evening waiting to see my philosophy tutor. We were early so my late father was browsing the news on his phone when he told me the news. Neither him nor my mother knew who he was, but I did, and I knew in that moment what a hole would from then on be missing from the fashion world. I visited his exhibition at the V&A in 2015 which was the t hauntingly beautiful experience I would have quite happily kept paying so I could stay in there.

I design my own clothes in my spare time - they haven’t gone any further than my sketchbooks - and am fascinated by fashion, even if I do spend most of my time in sweatpants. The main think I took from this is that McQueen showed us fashion isn’t always about the physical garment. It can be - the garment, the model, the material, the form, the fit - but it’s also about the setting, the meaning, the connotations, and most importantly, how it makes us feel.

There must have been thousands of images for Honigman to choose from and the ones chosen for this are just perfect for depicting McQueen’s inner turmoil. Ideally I would have loved a photo for each garment mentioned but you’d need a separate volume to fit them all in.

It’s not a particularly long book, perfect to read in one sitting if you’re lucky enough to have that spare time. It is informative and informative and interesting and important without being too heavy to read. I may have to buy a physical copy of it to add to my bookshelf.

As McQueen once said, “The world needs fantasy” - ain’t that the truth,