Alexander McQueen was a British fashion designer and maker of haute couture clothing. He was born in Lewisham, London, to Ronald and Joyce McQueen and was of Huguenot descent on his father’s side.
His ancestors, who were stonemakers, settled in East London in the late eighteenth century. In 1806, one ancestor, also called Alexander, married a woman of Huguenot descent named Sarah Vallas, whose heritage greatly appealed to McQueen.
McQueen knew that he wanted to be a fashion designer from an early age, and served an apprenticeship in Savile Row and attended the Rossetta Studio Workshops. McQueen received his Masters degree in fashion design from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in 1992, which kickstarted his career as a fashion designer.