Entertainment / Alexander McQueen Fashion World Mourns Alexander McQueen The 'brash boy' was hailed as a genius for his designs By John Johnson, Newser Staff Posted Feb 11, 2010 1:59 PM CST Copied Alexander McQueen in 2006. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, file) See 16 more photos The apparent suicide of 40-year-old British designer Alexander McQueen has stunned the fashion world. "I found him about as complex and beguiling as any human,' writes fashion journalist Cathy Horyn in the New York Times. "He was enormously creative and intelligent—and funny and rude and fearless." More than anything, though, he was a "genuinely talented man." “I think this whole world maybe was too much for him," Saks fashion director Nicole Fischelis tells the Wall Street Journal. "The business has evolved, the business is changing. It became much more about who wears it than who makes it. Alexander McQueen was a real artist." "He was the most brilliant designer of his generation, and his influence can be seen in the way that women dressed over the last 15 years," British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman tells the Daily Mail. Check the photo gallery for samples of his work. (More Alexander McQueen stories.) Report an error