It was the 1999 Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute's Ball, and New York's high society fashionistas were out in full force. Feeling like an outsider, I scanned the crowd for a kindred spirit.  Suddenly, I spotted Lee McQueen, unusually dapper in tailored pinstripes and Givenchy shades. He was puffing on a cigarette and chatting up an unassuming, grey-haired lady, who certainly wasn't a fashionista.

McQueen waved me over.  "This scene's unreal,"  I whispered as we hugged hello. "I don't feel like I belong here." 

"That makes two of us," he laughed.  "Jeanne, have you met my mother?" he asked, turning to the grey-haired lady.

That the world's so-called 'enfant terrible' designer would come to this swank bash with his dear old mum was a refreshing revelation.

Two years earlier, in London, I sat on a judging panel with the rebellious McQueen, for the Smirnoff International Design Awards.  A Croation student had submitted a creation that was covered in raw meat, and organizers were refusing to let the girl put her design on the runway.  McQueen threatened to walk if the meat dress was censored.  He got his way. The night of the competition, I caught McQueen's eye as the controversial gown cruised down the catwalk.  We gave each other the thumbs-up sign, and a knowing smile.   His stubborn tenacity had triumphed.

The tragic loss of Lee McQueen has left us reeling.  Beyond the extraordinary creations he gave us, this was one designer who was emblematic of heart, fearlessness and uncompromising vision in a world ravaged by commercialism and rife with pretension. A master showman who inspired a whole generation with his high theatrics and dramatic esthetic, McQueen taught us about the transformational nature of fashion, transporting us to brave new worlds, and forever pushing the perimeters of our own imaginations.

Last October, in Paris, just after one of, if not THE most exquisite presentations ever staged by McQueen, I stood at the door of the Paris Omnisport Stadium as the chic crowd filed out, looking for comments about the profound artistry which had just come down the mammoth runway.  Many of fashion's most seasoned veterans had tears in their eyes as they recounted how moved they'd been by McQueen's genius, and how this was the kind of show that reminded them why they'd fallen in love with fashion in the first place.