Alexander McQueen leaves $82,000 to dogs

Daily Fashion Juice
Tuesday, July 26, 2011

British fashion designer Alexander McQueen leaves $82,000 to dogs

LONDON - British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who committed suicide in February 2010, left about $82,000 of his $26-million fortune to his beloved pet dogs, details of his will released Tuesday showed.

McQueen, the former enfant terrible of the fashion world who went on to find huge success with his provocative designs, left the money to ensure his dogs were pampered after he was gone.

Family members, his housekeepers and his favourite charities also received large sums in the will.
The will, seen by Agence France-Presse and originally released after a request from Britain's Press Association news agency, said thje $82,000 — about 50,000 pounds sterling — was being left "for the upkeep and maintenance of my dog or dogs so long as my dog or dogs shall live."

He left behind three dogs called Minter, Juice and Callum, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.
McQueen wrote a suicide note asking his family to "look after my dogs" before he hanged himself in his central London flat on Feb. 11, 2010, after taking a cocktail of drugs the day before his mother's funeral.

The designer — whose full name was Lee Alexander McQueen — left behind the equivalent of about $26 million U.S. on his death.

He bequeathed $82,000 to each of his two housekeepers, Marlene and Cesar Garcia, for their "long and faithful service," according to the will.

Four charities — HIV and sexual health charity The Terence Higgins Trust, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, the London Buddhist Centre and animal welfare charity Blue Cross — each received about $165,000.

McQueen left the lion's share of his estate in a trust for his Sarabande charity, named after his spring/summer 2007 collection, with a request that part of it be used for scholarships to Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, which he attended.

From a humble background in the east of London, McQueen rose to become one of Britain's most lauded fashion designers.

A four-time winner of the British designer of the year award, he designed for Givenchy and was creative director of his own label, which was bought out by Gucci.