Alexander McQueen label will continue despite debts of £32m

The Alexander McQueen brand will survive following the fashion designer's death, it was announced today.

The decision by the French fashion group controlling the label honours McQueen's final wish, despite it having debts of £32 million.

In one of his last interviews before he killed himself last week, McQueen said: "I'm 40 now. When I'm dead, hopefully this house will still be going."

The boss of PPR, which ran McQueen through its subsidiary company Gucci, paid tribute to the late designer.

Chairman and chief executive Francois Henri-Pinault said: "The Alexander McQueen trademark will live on. His art went beyond the fashion world. He hid behind an armour of provocation.

"Fashion has lost one of its extraordinary people. He was one of the falling stars that comes across our generation. He is a person we will miss enormously." He described the British designer as a "pure genius" who was "imaginative and original".

Gucci Group president and chief executive Robert Polet added: "We believe in the future of the brand."

Analysis of the most recent accounts of McQueen's British companies reveal it owed more than £32 million.

The label only broke even in 2007, six years after it was founded and made a relatively small profit in 2008.

The unequivocal support for the Alexander McQueen range received a jubilant response at the label's offices in London. A spokeswoman said: "It's great news, we're really happy considering the circumstances. It was Lee's wish that the brand go on."

She said it was "too early to say" who the label's new designer would be, but it is understood McQueen had a team of deputies who could step up.

It was also confirmed today that a McQueen collection will be presented during Paris Fashion Week on 9 March.

A company source said frantic preparations were going on to make sure the clothes were ready. McQueen struggled to work in the days before he hanged himself as he fought depression following his mother's death.

Karl McKeever, retail consultant at Visual Thinktank Consultancy, said he believed the McQueen brand could flourish under a new designer. He said: "History shows a designer's influence can be reinterpreted through new hands."
Many brands — Moschino, Gucci and Versace included — have succeeded after the death of their designers.

The British Fashion Council plans to erect a memorial wall to McQueen in the entrance of the London Fashion Week catwalk tent in Somerset House on to which fans can pin tributes.