Perhaps the best example of this is Chanel, says Beverly Solomon, creative director for Musee-Solomon with a past in sales and marketing for Diane von Furstenberg and Ralph Lauren. “Chanel makes more money now than at any time when Coco Chanel was still alive,” Solomon says. She attributes at least part of Chanel’s staying power to a “brilliant move in the 1970s,” referring to it’s decision to pull out of the U.S. altogether for a few years and then make a “very careful and calculated comeback as one of the premiere and exclusive labels in fashion and fragrance,” she adds. Run by the talents of Karl Lagerfeld (who only designs his own label), the brand expanded on its fragrance and accessory business and even introduced denim at $1,000 a pair and a highly popular line of watches that retail at anywhere from $2,400 to more than $25,000. A back-of the-envelope calculation in May 2008 by Condé Nast Portfolio of what Chanel was worth found an estimated value of between $10.3 billion and $14.8 billion.

Gucci is another case of an established fashion house that has weathered decades of infighting and sibling rivalry following the death of founder Guccio Gucci in 1953. Debuting in Florence in 1921, the brand gained a comfortable level of success within a few years of being in business and became known as the quintessential luxury design house until the late 1970s, with a celebrity following that included Grace Kelly, Jackie Kennedy, and Audrey Hepburn. But Gucci’s succession by sons Aldo, Vasco, Ugo, and Rodolfo eventually plunged the company into years of internal turmoil that culminated in the brand teetering on the brink of bankruptcy at the end of the 1970s and being relegated to “a tacky airport brand,” by Vanity Fair writer Graydon Carter, who criticized the company’s growing perfume and accessories business that was pacing their couture division.

So how did Gucci swing back to profitability? By focusing on talented outsiders to cut the family drama. Arguably the best business decision of the brand was bringing in Parsons School of Design dropout, but master designer nonetheless, Tom Ford in 1990.

Taking over as creative director in 1994, Ford is credited with bringing back luxury, prestige, and that all-important designation for a brand of this stature, exclusivity. His designs were favorites of icons like the late Princess Diana and countless Hollywood celebrities. Gucci generated more than 2.2 billion euro worldwide at the end of 2008 according to BusinessWeek.

How McQueen’s death will affect business for the Gucci Group remains to be seen. "It feels gauche to talk about how much is he worth now," says says Sharon Graubard, senior vice president of trend analysis at Stylesight. "But he built something very powerful in his lifetime. And the vision that he had will still resonate when people hear his name for a long time to come."

When a celebrity designer dies tragically, it can send the brand into a tailspin initially, like in the case of Gianni Versace. Also a close friend of Princess Diana, his murder on July 15, 1997, by Andrew Cunanan rocked the fashion world to its core. The company had a clear succession plan with sister Donatella, who was serving as vice president at the time and stepped in as creative director, and brother Santo Versace taking the reigns as CEO.

But the transition was less than seamless, with many critics asking aloud whether Donatella could carry the brand forward. And its roster of celebrity fans including Sir Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley, and Beyonce, couldn’t save the firm from financial instability. By 2006, Women’s Wear Daily reported plans in the works for an IPO to offset staggering operating losses from 62 million pounds in 2005 to 4 million pounds at the end of the year. And while the IPO didn’t happen, the company suffered a loss of 19.1 million euro in 2006 but seemed to be rebounding in 2007, posting revenues of 310.6 million euro and continuing the growth in 2008, with an 8.3 percent growth to 336 million euro. On December 15, 2009, the company named a new CFO, Francesco Buccola, previously of Gucci. The report quoted now-CEO Gian Giacomo Ferraris as saying “the company remains committed to return to profit during 2011.”

What are the prospects for the company’s survival? “Versace carries on because people want Versace,” says Boiter. For now, the fashion world may need to take a pause to honor the loss of the iconic designer. “I don't think anybody's ready to see what the possible new McQueen line would look like,” says Graubard. “Any future would have to come organically, from his team, perhaps using his designs in a very loving and reverential way that commemorated the extraordinary vision of the man we lost.”