Contemporary Designer: Alexander McQueen

Lee Alexander McQueen is a fashion designer. At the age of 20, McQueen was employed with the designer Koji Tatsuno. A year later he went to Milan and there he was employed as an assistant designer with Romeo Gigli. The shows of Alexander McQueen are known for their emotional power and energy, as well as the romantic but contemporary nature of the collections. McQueen put together contrasting elements: fragility and strength, tradition and modernity, fluidity and severity. He had an openly passionate viewpoint, respecting the arts and crafts tradition. McQueen’s collections combine a thorough knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, the fine workmanship of French Haute Couture and the excellent finish of Italian manufacturing. In less than 10 years, he became the most respected fashion designer in the world. McQueen became a chief designer in October 1996 at the French Haute Couture House Givenchy. His collections included women’s ready-to-wear, men’s ready-to-wear and fragrance.

In summer of 1999 he put together a fashion show. In this fashion show, he was inspired from the arts and crafts movement. The fabrics that he used for this fashion show are: brown leather for the corset, cream silk lace for the skirt and for the prosthetic legs he used carved elm wood. In this fashion show he used the contrast element of the colours of the fabrics, brown that is a dark colour and the white that is a light colour. In the second dress he used white cotton for the dress and white synthetic tulle for the under skirt. In this dress, the muslin was spray- painted. Alexander McQueen did a lot of fashion shows but one that he did in 2005 was called “It’s not only a game”. A fabulous idea in this fashion show was to make the runway not like usual but a giant chess board. In this fashion show the models had to wear puffball miniskirts and Empire waist dresses based on 18^th century styles that inspired McQueen. In this fashion show we see some styles like Japanese kimonos, moulded corsets and sci-fi suits that all were connected with the theme of the chess piece. Again in this show we can see the contrast between the power and vulnerability. The clothes were from Edwardian children’s wear to embroidered fairground horses. The designer, from this show explored different types of woman - Americans face Japanese on the board, redheads are placed opposite Latin Americans and so forth. 

 

 

 

References:

 

No. 13 | Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 2013. No. 13 | Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. [ONLINE] Available at: http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/tag/no-13/.

 

Alexander McQueen | Biography. 2013. Alexander McQueen | Biography. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.alexandermcqueen.eu/http://www.alexandermcqueen.eu/alexandermcqueen/experience/biography/AAD,en_GB,sf.html/AAD,en_GB,sf.html.