一本不完美 但夠動人的麥昆傳記

Lee Alexander McQueen chose to kill himself, with perhaps unintentional resonance, on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010.

2010年2月11日（週四），李·亞歷山大·麥昆(Lee Alexander McQueen)自殺，雖然他可能無意於此，但的確引發了強烈反響。

Although the suicide took place in London, where McQueen lived in a Mayfair townhouse, the shocking news quickly reverberated 3,400 miles away, where much of the Fashion world was gathering in Bryant Park for the first day of New York Fashion Week.

麥昆是在倫敦梅費爾區自己的聯排別墅裏自殺的，但是這個令人震驚的消息很快在3400英里外引發迴響。當時，時尚界的大部分人物聚在布賴恩特公園(Bryant Park)，觀看紐約時裝週(New York Fashion Week)第一天的時裝秀。

Word filtered out slowly and erratically. One attendee recalled sitting at the Richard Chai show and getting a text that the 40-year-old designer, known professionally as Alexander McQueen, had died, but no one sitting around him seemed to know whether the news was true. Another recalled seeing a line of BlackBerrys in the front row go off almost in unison. The Vogue editor Anna Wintour was reported seen rushing out of the BCBG show, a stricken look on her face. At Ports 1961, there was a moment of silence before the show began.

消息傳播得緩慢而不確定。有一個人回憶說，當時他正在觀看理查·蔡(Richard Chai)時裝秀，收到短信說40歲的設計師亞歷山大·麥昆去世了，但是他周圍的人似乎都不知道消息的真假。還有一個人回憶說，頭排的很多黑莓手機(BlackBerry)幾乎在同一時間發出提示音。據說，當時《Vogue》美國版的主編安娜·溫圖爾(Anna Wintour)從BCBG時裝秀上衝了出去，一臉驚恐。Ports 1961時裝秀開始前，舉行了默哀儀式。

Puzzlingly, very little of this kind of detail has made it into “Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin” (Scribner), a new biography by the British author Andrew Wilson.

令人不解的是，英國作家安德魯·威爾遜(Andrew Wilson)幾乎沒有把任何這樣的細節寫入新傳記《亞歷山大·麥昆：棲血膚下》(Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin，查爾斯·斯克里布納父子出版公司[Scribner]出版)中。

Mr. Wilson deals with the death of McQueen with disappointing swiftness over the five last pages of the book — the discovery of the body by his two housekeepers, the evidence that he seemed to have hanged himself after a failed attempt to slash his wrists, the stunned (but not altogether surprised) reactions from friends and colleagues — before briefly recapping the somber funeral two weeks later.

同樣令人失望的是，威爾遜只在傳記的最後五頁草草講述麥昆之死——兩位管家發現了他的屍體，有證據表明，他本想割腕自殺，沒有成功，而後自縊，朋友和同事們得到消息後感到震驚（但並非完全意外）——然後簡單講述了兩週後舉行的肅穆葬禮。

One wants him to pause and reflect a bit more on the odd confluence of events and capture more fully how the horror of this death rippled through the many layers of the global fashion community. As a reader, I wanted to know what it must have been like to be inside those Bryant Park tents when the awful news broke.

人們想讓作者暫停一下，稍微思考一下這些事件的奇怪巧合，更全面地講述麥昆去世的可怕消息在全球時尚界傳開的情況。作爲一名讀者，我想知道這個可怕的消息傳出時，布賴恩特公園帳篷裏的那些人是什麼反應。

It’s a curious misstep for a book that, despite its occasional flaws, is a thorough and highly readable accounting of one of the most talented and influential designers of his generation, someone who not only got a major museum retrospective just a year after his death but, in life, seemed to both revel in and recoil from the fame his talent brought him.

如此簡略地講述麥昆去世的情況是這本書一個奇怪的失誤。因爲這本書雖然偶爾有些瑕疵，但它全面講述了那個時代最有才華、最具影響力的設計師之一，具有很強的可讀性。在麥昆去世後僅一年，一個大型博物館舉辦了他的作品回顧展。麥昆一生中似乎既享受才華給他帶來的名聲，也對名聲有所畏懼。

The book covers ground familiar to anyone who follows fashion: McQueen’s hardscrabble childhood in the East End of London and the early signs of artistic promise. His struggles with the growing sense that he was gay. The bold move to Milan at age 21, showing up unannounced at the offices of Romeo Gigli in “patchwork flares and a checked shirt” and ultimately walking away with an apprenticeship. His years at the prestigious Central Saint Martins (and his volatile, poisonous relations with that school’s legendary professor, Louise Wilson). The start of his own label, the early acclaim (coupled with occasional critical derision and headlines like “The Designer Who Hates Women”) and the career-making appointment at Givenchy. His symbiotic, complicated relationship with Isabella Blow (herself a suicide) and the drug-induced rages during his final years.

這本傳記中的很多內容是關注時尚的人所熟悉的：麥昆在倫敦東區度過貧困的童年，很早就表現出藝術天分。他慢慢意識到自己是同性戀，併爲此感到痛苦。21歲時，他大膽搬到米蘭，事先沒打招呼就出現在羅密歐·吉利(Romeo Gigli)的辦公室，穿着“拼接喇叭褲和格子襯衣”，最後以學徒身份離開那裏。他在著名的中央聖馬丁學院(Central Saint Martins)學習（他和傳奇教授路易絲·威爾遜[Louise Wilson]的關係變化無常，有時互相傷害）。他創立自己的品牌，很快獲得讚揚（評論家們偶爾也嘲笑他，甚至出現“一位厭惡女人的設計師”這樣的標題）。他被任命爲紀梵希(Givenchy)的設計師，事業出現重大轉機。他和伊莎貝拉·布洛（Isabella Blow，她也自殺了）建立共生而複雜的關係。在人生的最後幾年裏，因爲吸毒，他變得暴躁易怒。

Much of this has been covered in two other recently published books, “Gods and Kings” by Dana Thomas, and “Champagne Supernovas” by Maureen Callahan, not to mention the play “McQueen,” now running in the West End.

上述這些內容在前不久出版的另外兩本關於麥昆的傳記中大多也有提到，它們分別是達娜·托馬斯(Dana Thomas)的《衆神與國王》(Gods and Kings)和莫琳·卡拉漢(Maureen Callahan)的《香檳色超新星》(Champagne Supernovas)。更別提目前正在西區劇院(West End)上演的戲劇《麥昆》(McQueen)。

But what makes Mr. Wilson’s book different, and ultimately a better read, was the access granted him by family and close friends as McQueen’s authorized biographer.

不過，威爾遜這本傳記的獨特之處和過人之處在於，作爲麥昆授權的傳記作者，威爾遜能夠接觸麥昆的家人和密友。

Those interviews illuminate the strongest part of the book, the lengthy section dealing with McQueen’s early years, particularly the close bond he shared with his mother, Joyce, a beacon of stability in an often-turbulent life. As one longtime friend told the author: “He was this little fat boy from the East End with bad teeth who didn’t have much to offer, but he had this one special thing, this talent, and Joyce believed in him.”

那些採訪是全書最強大的部分，有很長一部分是講述麥昆的早年生活，特別是他和母親喬伊絲(Joyce)的親密關係。母親是他動盪一生中不變的明燈。就像一位老朋友對傳記作者說的：“他是東區的胖乎乎的小男孩，牙齒長得也不好，沒有太多優勢，但他有這一點特別之處，有這一種天分，而喬伊絲相信他能在這方面有所成就。”

For most of his life, McQueen struggled with his looks (hating his teeth and his fluctuating weight), yet time and time again he is described as being oddly seductive, with a distinctive laugh and an impish charm that won people over. Tom Ford described him as being a “marshmallow” in person: “adorable, charming and kind.”

在一生的大部分時候，麥昆對自己的長相感到不滿（他討厭自己的牙齒和容易發胖的體形），但是很多人都說他具有奇特的誘惑力，他獨特的大笑和頑皮的魅力往往能贏得人們的喜愛。湯姆·福特(Tom Ford)說，麥昆的性格像“棉花糖”：“可愛、迷人、友好”。

Not all of the memories are flattering, of course, particularly of the boyfriends he avidly pursued, often treated horribly and then discarded with nary a look backward. (One ended their relationship when McQueen insisted that he have sex with a third man while the designer watched.) Throughout the book there are examples of friendships, business partnerships and romantic entanglements ending with a cold suddenness.

當然，不是所有的回憶都是愉快的，特別是跟他交往過的男友們。他熱切地追求他們，糟糕地對待他們，最後冷酷地拋棄他們（其中一位男友跟他分手的原因是，麥昆堅持要求這位男友和另一個男人做愛，讓自己觀看）。書中到處都有這樣的例子：他突然冷酷地結束友情、商業合作關係和愛情糾葛。

To some close friends, McQueen’s inability to foster and maintain a relationship went back to a childhood trauma he disclosed to a few of them: Being sexually abused by the husband of an older sister. “He was hurt and angry and said that it had robbed him of his innocence,” Detmar Blow, Isabella’s husband, told the author. “I thought it brought a darkness in his soul.”

一些密友認爲，麥昆無法培養和維持長期關係，是因爲童年受過創傷。他只對少數幾位密友透露過此事：小時候，他被一個姐夫強姦了。“他受到傷害，感到憤怒，認爲自己的童貞被奪去，”伊莎貝拉的丈夫德特馬·布洛(Detmar Blow)對威爾遜說，“我認爲這給他的心靈蒙上了陰影。”

There was also, of course, darkness in his fashion, particularly in the infamous “Highland Rape” show in March of 1995, which featured women walking down the runway with tartan dresses ripped at the chest to expose their breasts. Most critics were appalled, including one from The Independent, who wrote: “He is a skillful tailor and a great showman, but why should women play abused victims? The show was an insult to women and to his talent.”

他的時裝當然也有陰暗的一面，特別是1995年3月聲名狼藉的“蘇格蘭高地強姦”時裝秀(Highland Rape)：模特們穿着格子呢，胸部被扒開，露出乳房。大部分評論家對此感到震驚，《獨立報》(The Independent)的一位評論家寫道：“他是一位巧妙的裁縫，一個偉大的表演者，但爲什麼要讓女人扮演強姦案的受害者呢？這場時裝秀是對女人和他自己才華的侮辱。”

And here is where the book begins to stumble a bit. Mr. Wilson is very good at describing the actual shows produced by McQueen, largely by quoting reviews at the time. But as someone who is lacking in fashion expertise (previous books include biographies of Harold Robbins and Sylvia Plath), explaining the particular creative imagination that McQueen was able to tap into eludes him.

在這一點上，這本書有點失誤。威爾遜十分擅長描述麥昆的時裝秀，主要是通過引用當時的評論。但是由於他缺乏專業時裝知識（他之前的著作包括哈羅德·羅賓斯[Harold Robbins]和西爾維婭·普拉特[Sylvia Plath]的傳記），所以他無法詮釋麥昆獨特的創造性想象力。

There are gaps in the people he chose to interview, mostly notably Anna Wintour, who spoke movingly at the McQueen memorial six months after his death (wearing, according to the author, a “black and gold embroidered coat”), and who is close to two other designers, John Galliano and Marc Jacobs, with their own well-documented substance abuse problems.

威爾遜在選擇採訪對象時也有疏漏，最明顯的是安娜·溫圖爾。在麥昆去世六個月後的追悼會上，溫圖爾發表了感人的悼詞（威爾遜寫道，當時她穿着“黑色和金色刺繡外套”）。溫圖爾跟另外兩位有吸毒問題的設計師也很親密——約翰·加利亞諾(John Galliano)和馬克·雅可布(Marc Jacobs)。

She might have had had some interesting things to say about why fashion seems to both attract and punish such fragile creatures. (And one wishes that the insightful New York Times fashion critic Amy Spindler were alive to articulate what she and a few others saw in McQueen’s early and often shambolic runway shows that convinced them that they were witnessing genius at work.)

關於時尚爲什麼既能吸引也會懲罰這些脆弱的人，溫圖爾可能有一些深刻的見解（而且讀者希望具有深刻洞察力的《紐約時報》時尚評論家埃米·斯平德勒[Amy Spindler]還活着，能解釋一下爲什麼她和其他幾位評論家認爲麥昆早期的一些混亂的時裝秀是天才的傑作）。

It is also poignant that Mr. Wilson was not able to interview McQueen’s mother, the person closest to him, who died just days before he killed himself. In fact, friends suggest that Joyce’s own funeral, scheduled for Feb. 12, was the reason he took his life — as if to avoid a day he never wanted to see.

令人心酸的是，威爾遜不能採訪麥昆的母親喬伊絲——那個跟他最親近的人。她在麥昆自殺前數日去世，定於2月12日下葬。實際上，朋友們認爲，喬伊絲的喪禮是麥昆自殺的直接原因，他好像是爲了逃避那個他永遠都不想面對的日子。

Joyce seemed to understand what her death might do to his fragile psyche. His brother, Tony, who had been at her bedside when she died, recalled getting a phone call from McQueen the next day, asking what their mother had said in her final moments.

喬伊絲似乎知道，自己的死會給麥昆脆弱的心靈帶來嚴重傷害。喬伊絲去世時，麥昆的哥哥託尼(Tony)在她的牀邊。他回憶說，第二天他接到麥昆的電話，詢問母親的遺言。

“And I said, ‘She said she loves you and you’re not to go kill yourself now.’ And then I didn’t hear from him again.”

“我說，‘她說她愛你，你現在不能自殺。’後來我再也沒有接到他的電話。”