Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Fashion's "Magical Moment" Recounted

Timed to the paperback release of her book, Pret-a-Reporter spoke to the New York Times best-selling author and fashion journalist about her inspiration behind the piece, the research process ("to write smartly about the end, I had to thoroughly understand the beginning") and what made Galliano and McQueen different from the likes of Karl Largerfeld, Alexander Wang and Riccardo Tisci.


Why did you pick Alexander McQueen and John Galliano to do a biography/non-fiction book on? Was it them who fascinated you, or the time in fashion? 

While working on a story about John’s downfall, I found myself writing a paragraph about other designers who had cracked or had serious addiction issues in recent years, most notably McQueen. And I thought, there’s something going on here. I talked to my book editor in London and it occurred to me that they were victims of the pressures of globalization in the luxury fashion business. They were no longer designers; they were managers, jobs for which they were never trained and didn’t really want — and it was just too much. And they were stuck on a hamster wheel they just couldn’t get off. McQueen killed himself; Galliano mixed prescription meds with alcohol. Galliano has said in a recent interview that had he not been fired and sent to rehab he believes he, too, would have been dead within six months.

I had interviewed and written about both a lot during my 25 years covering fashion; I had followed them since their early years and had kept all my notes, press kits and clippings. I discovered a treasure trove in my basement. So it just made sense to turn it all into a book.