Ana Finel Honigman's What Alexander McQueen Can Teach You about Fashion makes it clear the late fashion designer had a lot to say. Fashion can seem elitist and glossy, but McQueen rose to fame by deconstructing fashion to make it edgy and unsettling. His shows exhibited dark and deeply personal themes, as he took inspiration from the violence in his Scottish roots and his identity as a gay man who came from hardscrabble beginnings. His famous skull prints came from his belief that it's "important to look at death because it is a part of life." McQueen's bold creations pronounced his message to embrace all of life, its wildness and darkness as well as its beauty. After all, he said, "There is blood beneath every layer of skin."--Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd