ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

Shannon Lewis

BioBorn 1969 and died 2010, McQueen was a British icon from London to the fashion industry. He became one of the youngest designers to win ‘British Designer of the Year’ and won it four times between 1996-2003. He was also named ‘International Designer of the Year’ and was awarded CBE in 2003 by the Council of Fashion Designers.

When he was 20, McQueen began working for the Japanese designer Koji Tatsuno, who was creating clothes from antique cloth. This was then followed by Romeo Gigli who was fascinated by McQueen's unique, obscure tailoring techniques and hired him immediately.

His final collection for his MA degree work received extensive press coverage, where then artist Isabelle Blow bought the entire collection. He launched his own label in 1992.

In 1996, he was made head designer at Givenchy. ‘McQueen's sometimes stormy relationship with Givenchy ended in March 2001.’ – V&A website

Over ten years, McQueen started to open stores in London, New York, L.A, Las Vegas and Milan. He also started to create more than clothing such as fragrances and cosmetics. Many celebrities wore clothing from his collection for instance Lady Gaga, Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman.

The other day I had visited the Alexander McQueen exhibition in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London called ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’. The exhibition was extraordinary and you truly get a great insight to what each garment is trying to portray, for instance McQueen’s second collection for Givenchy ‘ Eclect Dissect’ was based on a fictional story of a surgeon who dismembered women and made them into hybrids using bird parts. With this collection you can really see the twisted mind of the fictional surgeon by how the fabric would merge with feathers.

There was a lot of black and dulled colours used in the collection suggesting the cruelty and messed up experiments

Ensemble, eclect dissect, autumn/winter 1997/98

The Windows of Culloden was based on Mcqueen’s interest in his Scottish heritage. I felt that there were two distinctive sections to this collection: one was punk rock and tartan and the other focused around delicate natural objects/creatures.I found the more nature based garments fascinating because of the layers of textures it uses and also the movement it can create (light materials). You can really see the inspirations to nature from its random textures especially to the dress on the right

‘This time the inspiration was the Jacobite Risings that culminated in the Battle of Culloden (1745), the collection a memorial to the widows who had lost their husbands in the bloody conflict.’

Windows of Culloden,Autumn/Winter 2006

I understand how McQueen’s work would not really link to drawing as it’s fashion based, but I found his work to be inspiring as he would use odd shapes, materials and influences to create something extraordinary and belonging to a different world. He would start off with natural objects such as shells and animals (birds, deer and snakes, and then take and manipulate features to create a garment. Also with every garment and accessories created he would do many fashion drawings to get his basic ideas down.

I Have tried this out in the fashion drawings I have created by drawing shells from different angles and then picking out the features I like about them. This way of working is a real test on your imagination as you need to think of many different ideas and make sure they are aesthetically pleasing at the same time.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/Alexander-McQueen/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3373/alexander-mcqueen-savage-beauty-4777/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/museumofsavagebeauty/rel/encyclopedia-of-collections-the-widows-of-culloden/