StyleBible.ph

Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) reports that Robert Polet, president and chief executive officer of Gucci Group, issued a statement saying that Alexander McQueen‘s eponymous label will continue, even in the absence of the brand’s founder and creator.

The article quotes, ‘”We believe in the future of the brand,” said Polet, speaking at PPR’s annual results presentation here. “Lee was very proud of the people working in his company, and so am I;”‘ also adding that the brand’s Fall 2010 collection will be shown at the coming Paris Fashion Week.

Readers of the online fashion source have begun to speculate about Lee McQueen’s replacement; the names Gareth Pugh and Olivier Thyskens popping up in the comments section.

Another reader posted a link to a Fashion Television CTV video showing an interview with the late designer in 2006, and his feelings about his brand continuing in his absence.

Lee McQueen: If I ever get that old, and I’m still around, and I leave my company, I’ll just burn the place down; as if no one were there.

Interviewer: Really so you’d never let somebody carry on with the McQueen tradition, with the McQueen brand, if you weren’t actively involved?

Lee McQueen: Um, I don’t think so. Because that same person will have to come up with the concepts for my show and my shows are so personal. That cannot be. Then it turns into an awful Runway of non-existenceness.

I wonder if all founding fathers/mothers of design houses feel this way. What would Coco say about Karl; Dior about Galliano; or Givenchy about Tisci? The new guns all have a more current take on the aesthetic of their predecessors.

But what could be fresher than Lee McQueen’s ever-changing, ever-bold imagination and driving force? That’ll be a tough act to follow.

Isha.