the designer and the muse
Where vision meets obsession. In this series, Croix Magazine dissects the charged dynamic between those who make and those who move them. Each episode is a study in influence - the silhouettes born from a glance, the worlds built from a single muse’s presence. This is fashion at its most intimate: raw, magnetic, and impossible to counterfeit.
episode one: Alexander McQueen and Annabelle Neilson
“She kept me alive for years.” — McQueen
In the 90s, two outsiders collided—Lee Alexander McQueen, fashion’s troubled genius, and Annabelle Neilson, the aristocratic rebel with a haunted heart. Not lovers, but soul-bound. She rarely walked his runways, but her spirit—raw, ethereal, untamed - lived in his most iconic work. They met at the intersection of pain and creativity, where fashion became armor. Her influence whispered through collections like Highland Rape, where fragility became power. When McQueen died by suicide in 2010, a part of her vanished too. Annabelle passed away eight years later, aged just 49.
Together, they lit a fire fashion still feels.
episode two: hubert de givenchy and audrey hepburn
The dressmaker of dreams and his eternal muse.
In Episode 2 of The Designer and The Muse, we step into the rarefied world of Hubert de Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn - a creative bond spun from quiet devotion, architectural grace, and an unspoken understanding of elegance. Together, they didn’t just dress an era; they defined it.
From atelier fittings to the flicker of the silver screen, we trace the alchemy that turned a single little black dress into an enduring emblem of cinematic and sartorial history.
episode three: gianni and donatella versace
“The brother who dreamed, the sister who made it eternal.”
Gianni Versace may have dressed the world’s most iconic supermodels, but his greatest muse was always his sister, Donatella. What began as inspiration became legacy. After his tragic death in 1997, Donatella carried his vision forward, shaping the house of Versace into a dynasty of glamour, excess, and unapologetic power.