Julia Middleton's Thoughts on Leadership

I’m not one for fashion, let alone outlandish runway designs. I can admire the structural engineering that goes into creating these textile sculptures, but (and I know I’m missing the point here) they seem highly impractical to wear.

My attitude to this, which will no doubt cause the eye-roll of many a fashion doyenne, by no means blunted my sadness to read of Alexander McQueen’s death last week. I was particularly touched to read the Montreal Gazette’s quote about him, which recalled that he said: “at the end of the day, it’s just clothes”.

I know his clothing design is what wowed everyone, but I can see from the legacy he left behind that his leadership qualities extended beyond ‘just clothes’.

This is a guy who stepped over the social barriers of living on a council estate in east London in the 1970s. Those barriers would have been quite imposing. He was a taxi driver’s son, and one of six children. So I’m imagining resources were scarce. He didn’t exactly fit the mould of a conventional ‘boy’ with his sketches of gowns and designs of clothes for his sisters, and I can’t imagine he was surrounded by a progressive understanding of sexual preferences. His academic record at school also sounds like it was pretty poor.

None of that stopped him asserting himself and getting a job on Savile Row, then moving through some of the leading brands in fashion to eventually be appointed a CBE and named International Designer of the Year.

There’s been plenty of press about him since his death. He has left behind an amazing legacy at such a young age…far too young to die.

It’s unusual that I would read the fashion pages, but this one really lingered. It lingered because of the numerous reports of people who said that anyone who worked with him would give 200 per cent because he was such an inspiration. I don’t doubt it. Anyone with the kind of drive and vision that saw him rise from rags to riches would be nothing short of inspiring.

I never met the man and I probably couldn’t identify his trademark designs if I tried, but he sounds like he was a great leader.