15 October 1996 Fashion house Givenchy makes the 27-year-old self-proclaimed East End yob its designer
Sitting in the front row, surrounded by French fashion glitterati – all big hair, big shoulder pads and, it goes without saying, big money – the 27-year-old maverick of British fashion, Lee Alexander McQueen, couldn’t have looked more out of place. He is, after all, the designer whose past accolades have included (famously, during his Savile Row apprenticeship) scrawling obscenities inside the lining of a jacket destined for the Prince of Wales, mooning at the paparazzi on the catwalk and generally f-ing and blinding his way through kissy-kissy fashion life.
Related: Alexander McQueen: into the light | Jess Cartner-Morley