Alexander McQueen and Kate Spade suicides showed dark side of the fashion celebrity fairy tale
Spade’s death brought back painful memories of the 2010 suicide of fellow designer McQueen, whose life and demons are explored in a new documentary, ‘McQueen’
When celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and fashion icon Kate Spade killed themselves within the space of three days in June, many couldn’t fathom the tragedy of two people who seemed to have it all.
The suicides followed a slew of similarly shocking headlines in recent years about rock stars Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell, Hollywood figures Tony Scott and Robin Williams, to name only a few.
Spade’s demise, in particular, resurrected painful memories of the suicide of fellow designer Alexander McQueen, whose life and 2010 death at the age of 40 is explored in filmmaker Ian Bonhote’s new documentary, McQueen.
The feature-length film, which hit US cinemas on Friday, combines archive footage and new interviews to arrive at an authentic portrait of a tortured artist with a singular vision.
“Though all suicides leave a trail of desperate loss and confusion in their wake, celebrity suicides make a particularly palpable imprint,” therapist and academic Denise Fournier wrote after Bourdain’s death.