Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
“There was so much repression in London fashion. It had to be livened up.” – Alexander McQueen.
Victoria and Albert Museum presents Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, an exhibition that showcases the late designer’s visionary work. The exhibition is the first and largest retrospective of McQueen to be presented in Europe and spans from the designer’s 1992 graduate collection to his unfinished AW10 collection. To reflect McQueen’s famous runway shows and what they were known so well for, the designs will be presented with dramatic staging and sense of spectacle.
Alexander McQueen drew his inspiration from London, where he grew up. The designer left school at 15 to become a tailor’s apprentice and soon became a highly capable and innovative tailor. In 1990 he joined the prestigious MA Fashion course at Central Saint Martins and learned to be a fashion designer using London’s history, museums and emerging British art scene as a source of inspiration.
During his early days, McQueen worked with a small, close team to produce a series of low budget, provocative and captivating shows displayed in gritty, industrial locations across London. In the following years, one collection after another, McQueen changed the fashion scene. His originality and love for imaginative freedom and expression was reflected in his works all the way down to his revolutionary and inventive methods of cutting and construction.
While many of his collections were historically inspirited, a particularly reoccurring theme was Victorian Goth. McQueen was fascinated by 19th century England and writers like Edgar Allan Poe. This era was characterised by combined elements of horror and romance, which McQueen brought into his collections expressing paradoxes like life and death, lightness and darkness, melancholy and beauty.
Another important source of inspiration was the designer’s Scottish heritage, which he prided himself in. This was especially made clear with his AW06 collection The Widows of Culloden, which drew on the final battle of the Jacobite Risings in 1745. Together with other collections McQueen sought to express a political message that what the Brits did in Scotland was nothing short of genocide. Nevertheless, McQueen still found great inspiration in the history of England, which is particularly evident in the AW08 collection The Girl Who Lived in the Tree. The collection was inspired by the British Empire and was, despite its touches of irony, one of the designer’s most romantically nationalistic collections.
In line with paradoxical subjects, contrasts, historical inspiration, nationalism and romanticism McQueen was known for bringing in elements of nature into his collections. In McQueen’s words: “I have always loved the mechanics of nature and to a greater or lesser extent my work is always informed by that.” This view was promoted in the designer’s fashion collections, which often included raw materials and forms from the natural world.
Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty will be shown in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum from Saturday 14 March – Sunday 2 August 2015, in partnership with Swarovski, supported by American Express and MAC Cosmetics. It is made possible with the co-operation of Alexander McQueen.
www.alexandermcqueen.com
www.vam.ac.uk
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