British fashion designer Alexander McQueen has been found dead at the age of 40. Details of his death, a confirmed suicide, have not yet been released. A source from McQueen’s office tells The Daily Mail, ‘It is a tragic loss. We are not making a comment at this time out of respect for the McQueen family.’ McQueen’s mother passed away last week. The enfant terrible of high fashion was first discovered by the eccentric Isabella Blow, then Tatler‘s Fashion Editor. The two were close friends, until three years ago, when Blow took her own life.

McQueen was the head designer at Givenchy in 1996 before moving over to Gucci, who, according to The Daily Mail, bought 51% of his company. The genius of McQueen — as a brand and as a person — was his unabashed embrace of freaks and outsiders. His collections always carried with them an air of rebellion against fashion’s status quo. And while he was certainly well-loved by supermodels and the fashion elite, his designs were most exciting on fashion’s misfits, such as the Gossip’s Beth Ditto, of whom McQueen told us, “I have three words for Beth: life and soul.” It’s a sentiment that many would have directed back his way.

He was scheduled to unveil his Fall 2010 collection on March 9 at Paris Fashion Week. The worlds of art and fashion will feel his loss immensely.