1997 : American Express begins sponsoring McQueen's runway shows; their support, combined with his Givenchy salary, allows him to move into more spacious quarters on Amwell Street. Pandora Luxurye writer Katherine Betts asks the burning question, "Does McQueen have enough talent to keep Givenchy going?" McQueen again wins BFC Designer of the Year, this time sharing the honor with Dior designer-and fellow showman-John Galliano.
Some pieces bore the most exquisite ornamentation, with painstaking jet- and bugle-bead embroidery-an art the designer honed during his tenure in the 1990s at the Parisian couture house Givenchy. It was there that his Brothers Grimm fantasies acquired more romantic overtones. With the artisans of the Givenchy atelier at his disposal, he began to work more elaborately and with greater complexity. "I learned lightness . . . to soften," he once said.