Read: David Bowie and Alexander McQueen discussing sexuality
By Ben Kelly
David Bowie and Alexander McQueen once discussed sexuality, in a joint interview for Dazed and Confused magazine.
The magazine has republished the exchanges between the two LGBT icons, in which McQueen chats explicitly about being gay.
Bowie’s opening question to the designer, who had just taken over at Givenchy, was “Are you gay and do you take drugs?” to which McQueen laughs, affirming both.
Later Bowie comments, “I would say, from just looking at the way you work, that sexuality plays a very important part in the way that you design.”
McQueen replies, “Well, because I think it’s the worst mental attitude. Sexuality in a person trying to define one’s sexuality. Finding which way you sway or what shocks you in other people and who accepts you at the end of the day when you’re looking for love. You have to go through these corridors and it can be kind of mind-blowing sometimes.”
Elsewhere McQueen talks about fancying boys at the age of 3, and getting “the best blow job ever” from a rich French aristocrat.
The interview was originally published in 1996, the year before McQueen designed the Union Jack coat Bowie wore on the cover of his Earthling album.
Widely regarded as two of the most visionary British artists of all time, McQueen passed away in 2010, and Bowie died last week, following an 18 month battle with cancer. Two exhibitions of their respective works, displayed at the V&A museum in recent years became the museum’s most visited displays of all time.
More stories