McQueen was always hell-bent on displaying what the fashion world tries so hard to sweep under its glamorous carpet. The Fall/Winter 2001 collection, titled Merry-Go-Round, featured models dressed up in fancy dresses with their faces painted as masks of tragedy. It reminded us that, at its worst, fashion can resemble a sinister circus.
     The past several years have been tough on McQueen, the youngest of six children from a working class family. His dear friend and biggest supporter, the stylist Isabella Blow, who once famously bought one of McQueen’s collections in its entirety, committed suicide in 2007. McQueen was devastated. He dedicated his next, Spring/Summer 2008, collection to Blow. Yet, he carried on. Last fall McQueen sounded upbeat and confident in a Cathy Horyn interview published in The New York Times. “I’ve never been happier,” he said, “I work much harder.” But last week fate dealt him another blow. His mother, with whom McQueen was very close, passed away.
     It is always hard to see a person departing. It is doubly so when that person is someone who has enriched our culture. Undoubtedly, McQueen was such a man. Rest in peace.