It appears as though McQueen had been suffering depression following the death of his mother earlier this month. A string of worrying posts on Twitter reflected his fragile state of mind.
Pascal Le Segretain, Getty Images
Alexander McQueen, shown last March at a show in Paris, was found dead in his home in West London.
On Feb. 3 he wrote: "I'm letting my followers know my mother passed away yesterday RIPmum xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx." Four days later he posted: "sunday evening been a f*****g awful week but my friends have been great but now i have to some how pull myself together and finish with the HELLS ANGLES & PROLIFIC DEAMONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
McQueen had also been hit hard three years ago by the death his close friend, stylist and fashion icon Isabella Blow, who killed herself after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. McQueen dedicated his spring/summer 2008 show at Paris fashion week to his late friend, who had supported him since the start of his career.
SEE ALSO: McQueen and Blow Were a Star-Crossed Pair
The son of an east London taxi driver, the openly gay McQueen -- who described himself as the "pink sheep" of his family -- was a born designer. He once revealed that his earliest memory was of scribbling a picture of a dress on a piece of bare wall at age 3 in his family's council house.
He soon graduated to designing dresses for his three sisters, and after leaving school at age 16, was hired as an apprentice at the capital's renowned Savile Row bespoke tailors Anderson & Sheppard, whose clients included Prince Charles and Mikhail Gorbachev. After learning his cuts on Savile Row, he went on to work for London theater costume designers Angels and Bermans.
In 1996 he was made head designer of ready-to-wear and ultra-exclusive haute couture at prestigious French fashion house Givenchy, which he quit in 2000 to go into partnership with Gucci, which bought a 51 percent stake in his own firm.
His background in costume design and traditional tailoring made McQueen a rarity in the fashion world: a designer who could skip easily from the classic to the cutting edge. He was capable of crafting simple, effortlessly stylish suits or assembling highly artistic, architectural frocks with equal ease. And his catwalk shows were famed for their smart, humorous twists: models would be made to walk through a rainstorm, or be sprayed with paint by robots borrowed from a nearby car plant.
This unique style led to numerous accolades. He was named British designer of the year four times between 1996 and 2003, handed the International Designer of the Year prize by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2003 and made a Commander of the British Empire for his services to British fashion in 2003.
The designer's death, which comes eight days before London Fashion Week and a month before he was due to unveil his latest collection in Paris, has shocked the fashion world. "This is devastating news," said Sue Whiteley, former CEO of his business, according to the Daily Mail. "He was an unforgettable part of my life. He was a talent who was beyond others. People who worked with him would give 100 percent and more because he was totally inspiring."
Alexandra Shulman, editor of the British edition of Vogue, said: "McQueen influenced a whole generation of designers. His brilliant imagination knew no bounds as he conjured up collection after collection of extraordinary designs." She hailed him as a "master of the fantastic, creating astounding fashion shows that mixed design, technology and performance and on another he was a modern-day genius whose gothic aesthetic was adopted by women the world over. His death is the hugest loss to anyone who knew him and for very many who didn't."
