Top 100 Alexander McQueen Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “There is no better designer than nature.”

— Alexander McQueen

2. “You’ve got to know the rules to break them. That’s what I’m here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.”

— Alexander McQueen

3. “The world needs fantasy, not reality. We have enough reality today.”

— Alexander McQueen

4. “I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.”

— Alexander McQueen

5. “Of course I make mistakes. I’m human. If I didn’t make mistakes, I’d never learn. You can only go forward by making mistakes.”

— Alexander McQueen

6. “I find beauty in melancholy.”

— Alexander McQueen

7. “There is no way back for me now, I’m going to take you on journeys you’ve never dreamed possible.”

— Alexander McQueen

8. “It is important to look at death because it is a part of life. It is a sad thing, melancholy but romantic at the same time. It is the end of a cycle – everything has to end. The cycle of life is positive because it gives room for new things.”

— Alexander McQueen

9. “You can only go forward by making mistakes.”

— Alexander McQueen

10. “I think there is beauty in everything. What ‘normal’ people would perceive as ugly, I can usually see something of beauty in it.”

— Alexander McQueen

11. “Really, what I’m aiming for is world domination!”

— Alexander McQueen

12. “There comes a time in your life when you focus solely on what you believe is right, regardless of what everybody else is doing.”

— Alexander McQueen

13. “Fashion is self confident and fearless.”

— Alexander McQueen

14. “I’m the pink sheep in the family.”

— Alexander McQueen

15. “You can only go forward by making mistakes. I’m twenty-seven, not fifty-seven. I’m not Givenchy, I’m Alexander McQueen.”

— Alexander McQueen

16. “I came to terms with not fitting in a long time ago. I never really fitted in. I don’t want to fit in. And now people are buying into that.”

— Alexander McQueen

17. “I don’t want to do a cocktail party. I’d rather people left my shows and vomited.”

— Alexander McQueen

18. “It’s good to know where you come from. It makes you what you are today. It’s DNA, it’s in your blood.”

— Alexander McQueen

19. “If you’re an open book, there’s no allure.”

— Alexander McQueen

20. “I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists.”

— Alexander McQueen

21. “It’s the ugly things I notice more, because other people tend to ignore the ugly things.”

— Alexander McQueen

22. “I never look at other people’s work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions.”

— Alexander McQueen

23. “I am a melancholy type of person.”

— Alexander McQueen

24. “I like things to be modern and still have a bit of tradition.”

— Alexander McQueen

25. “I oscillate between life and death, happiness and sadness, good and evil.”

— Alexander McQueen

26. “Give me time and I’ll give you a revolution.”

— Alexander McQueen

27. “It’s almost like putting armor on a woman. It’s a very psychological way of dressing.”

— Alexander McQueen

28. “It’s a new era in fashion – there are no rules. It’s all about the individual and personal style, wearing high-end, low-end, classic labels, and up-and-coming designers all together.”

— Alexander McQueen

29. “Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.”

— Alexander McQueen

30. “I want to empower women.”

— Alexander McQueen

31. “The explosion of museum exhibitions is only a mirror image of what has happened to fashion itself this millennium. With the force of technology, instant images and global participation, fashion has developed from being a passion for a few to a fascination – and an entertainment – for everybody.”

— Alexander McQueen

32. “People find my things sometimes aggressive. But I don’t see it as aggressive. I see it as romantic, dealing with a dark side of personality.”

— Alexander McQueen

33. “I spent a long time learning how to construct clothes, which is important to do before you can deconstruct them.”

— Alexander McQueen

34. “Sting’s my ideal man, because he’s a real man.”

— Alexander McQueen

35. “There is a hidden agenda in the fragility of romance.”

— Alexander McQueen

Featured in: Romance Quotes

36. “Rap music’s been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn’t.”

— Alexander McQueen

37. “You’ve got to know the rules to break them.”

— Alexander McQueen

38. “I am married to work.”

— Alexander McQueen

39. “It needs to connect with the earth. Things that are processed and reprocessed lose their substance.”

— Alexander McQueen

40. “There has to be a balance between your mental satisfaction and the financial needs of your company.”

— Alexander McQueen

41. “I think there is beauty in everything.”

— Alexander McQueen

42. “I’m prepared to forget about money if it affects my creativity because, remember, I started off with nothing. And I can do that again.”

— Alexander McQueen

43. “I don’t want to be too proud, but I have a good personal style.”

— Alexander McQueen

44. “There are only a handful of designers that influence other designers, and I have to keep one step ahead of the game.”

— Alexander McQueen

45. “I feel more Scottish than Norman.”

— Alexander McQueen

46. “Menswear is about subtlety. It’s about good style and good taste.”

— Alexander McQueen

47. “Birds in flight fascinate me. I admire eagles and falcons. I’m inspired by a feather but also its color, its graphics, its weightlessness and its engineering. It’s so elaborate. In fact I try and transpose the beauty of a bird to women.”

— Alexander McQueen

48. “When I’m dead and gone, people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.”

— Alexander McQueen

49. “Women should look like women. A piece of cardboard has no sexuality.”

— Alexander McQueen

50. “I used flowers because they die. My mood was darkly romantic at the time.”

— Alexander McQueen