Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

Yesterday I went to the press preview for Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the Met.

WOWZA!
The drama was mind-blowing.
The best words are McQueen's own on the walls throughout.“There is no way back for me now. I am going to take you on journeys you’ve never dreamed were possible.” "I’m a romantic schizophrenic"
Costume Institute curator Anthony Boltan, reminded us of McQueen's favorite Shakespeare quote from Midsummer's Night Dream,
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind..."
Sarah Burton (Creative Director at McQueen and designer of Kate's wedding dress) told of 'Lee' coming in Monday morning with a pile of mussel shells he'd picked up on the beach on Sunday...
And making a shell bustier on the spot.

McQueen (of Scottish descent) created a 'Rape of Scotland' collection to express his political anger at England and often showed up at events in tartan kilts...

There are McQueen tartan items in the gift shop and you don't have to be Scottish to wear them...

Stella McCartney studied with McQueen at St. Martins, on Savile Row and when they arrived together in Paris early days, Lee said,

"Come on Stell, let's start my empire!"

The idea of the sublime-An unfettered emotionalism-Primativism -Naturalism-Exoticism

A not-to-be-missed exhibition at the Met

May 4 - July 31

McQueen's last Spring 2010 collection of digitally printed organic forms and patterns...

"It was an...unmissable formula...McQueen's message throughout was essentially sunk into the short dress—a steady development of his engineered sea-reptile prints, worked into a nipped-waist, belled-skirt silhouette. The colors—first green and brown, moving to aqua and blue—were exceptionally executed and swagged, and molded across panniered structures. Each dress was a work of computer-generated art crossbred with McQueen's couture-based signature cut." The Guardian

The catalog, Savage Beauty is just as sumptuous.





A McQueen acolyte arrives appropriately dressed...

Don't miss SAVAGE BEAUTY!

Search This Blog