Michele was last seen leaving the Marquee club in Chelsea in New York City at around 4 a.m. on Feb.13, according to The New York Times. His close friend Kevin James Dalton said it looked like Michele had slipped on an aluminum ramp while trying to board his boat at the Chelsia Piers. Kevin believes his friend fell into the “near-freezing water after a night of partying,” the paper reports.
Before his tragic death, Michele prided himself on being a vintage clothing expert, and he was well-known and respected by like-minded fashion aficionados. Michele, who studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology, looked to the sensual, glamourous fashions of the 1930s and 1940s for inspiration for his designs.
“I should be living in 1937; everything was sexy, seductive, beautiful,” he said in a 2011 interview with the fashion blog Stylelikeu.com. “You knew where you were.”
Michele’s career was going well before his death, which allowed him to buy the 1958 ChrisCraft boat he lived on.
“He could at times be a wild man,” his friend Kevin says. “You never knew what he was going to do. He’d always surprise you.”
How heartbreaking. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Michele’s friends and family during this difficult time.
— Tierney McAfee
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