Alexander McQueen

  Alexander McQueen is a luxury fashion house founded by designer Lee Alexander McQueen in 1992.  The house's early collections developed its reputation for controversy and shock tactics with trousers aptly named "bumsters" and a collection entitled Highland Rape. However darkMcQueen's design, it still achieves a femininity that has seduced everyone from Bjork to the Duchess of Westminster.McQ men's collection includes one of a kind pieces that keep your look on the edge of excitement. Dominate any scene in thrilling t-shirts, handsome hoodies, sweaters, sublime shirts, jeans and trousers with dramatic detailing and fine craftsmanship. McQ women's collection includes dresses and tops with dramatic detailing. Stunning skirts, jackets, and captivating coats keep you in the luxurious limelight.Even after Lee's death his aesthetics: daring masterpiece designs and fantastic fit that bring deep and hidden desires to life continue featuring in the new and unique collections created by house's new designer Sarah Burton.There is always something dark, beautiful, and inexplicable about the mysterious magnetism of Alexander McQueen brand.

BY Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel

Sonia Rykiel née Flis  born 25 May 1930 in Paris) is a French fashion designer.

Ethnically a Russian-Romanian Jew, Sonia Rykiel was born in Neuilly, a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, the eldest of five daughters of a Russian mother and a Romanian father. At the age of 17, she was employed to dress the window displays in a Parisian textile store. In 1953 Sonia married Sam Rykiel, owner of a boutique selling elegant clothing. In 1962, she couldn't find any soft sweaters to wear when she was pregnant, so she used a supplier to her husband from Venice to design her own.

Sonia Rykiel thereafter created her first maternity dresses and a tiny sweater, called the Poor Boy Sweater, which she started selling from her husband's label "Laura". The Poor Boy Sweater made the cover of ELLE fashion magazine, and brought Rykiel fame; because of it, she was crowned "Queen of Knits" by the Americans in 1967.

Since then, she has continued to experiment to expand her offerings. She later became the first designer to put seams on the outside of a garment, and to print words on her sweaters. In particular, she favours long clinging sweaters or small cropped pullovers, large rolled-back cuffs and long shawls. Her color palette usually features beige, grey, dark blue and charcoal.

She has also created a range of fragrances of which '7e Sens' was the first.

In 1980 Rykiel was voted one of the world's 10 most elegant women. She proved that knitwear can follow any trend. Rykiel also hit upon the trend of big, soft, fun fur done as a huge bubble of color - in her case baby pink, purple knitted fox or teal-blue Mongolian lamb. During Paris Fashion Week in October 2003, Sonia Rykiel showed her own collection for next spring. There were also gorgeous ruffled dresses in vintage floral and polka dot prints and smart houndstooth coats.