This should have never happened. How many times are we saying this these days? 

Is it me or are suicides happening with greater frequency?

Alexander McQueen's death is a huge loss to fashion and culture on so many levels.

There are plenty of articles covering McQueen's death and contribution to fashion - I think this one's the best so far http://bit.ly/ajQU45

This quote captured a key aspect of McQueen that I greatly respected "McQueen, [was] an explosively imaginative designer who openly courted controversy (he called one of his early collections, a mix of military jackets and torn-lace dresses, "Highland Rape") but who also treated craftsmanship as a foundation and not an afterthought (he began his career as an apprentice on Savile Row, helping to construct custom-made suits for the likes of Prince Charles and Mikhail Gorbachev)." His dedication to learning the craft was driven by him alone; his artistic expression - the search for emotion in fashion - was in his DNA. 

The reason I really respected Alexander McQueen was his belief that the fashion show was a canvas to experiment; a way for him to dig deep; to be scared; to push way further than needed - and then lean back into the fashion that people would actually wear. Go in any store of his and see the workmanship and wearability of his clothing but also feel the influence of his experiments from the catwalk.

He also embraced technology - being the first to stream his show live but also he shared his design patterns like they were blog posts - here's one for a Kimono jacket http://bit.ly/aoNP0h

I'll finish with this quote that I think best captures his challenging mind "For Alexander McQueen, fashion was a means to grapple boldly with the deeper and darker side of human existence. His work always posed the question 'why shouldn't - why couldn't - fashion be emotional?" Alex Fury, SHOWstudio