Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2017 Menswear Review

     There is no doubt about the constant, constant, constant changes within politics, fashion, and culture as a whole. However, there are moments that remind me that artistic substance still exists despite constant change. Sarah Burton's fall menswear collection for Alexander McQueen was an expedition that proved pomp and circumstance can still exist in this age of technology and leisure. Throughout these men's fashion weeks, I have seen collection after collection trying too hard to push banal, thoughtless ideas about masculinity and the future of fashion. Sportswear and ease have taken over. Perhaps that is the spirit of our times, which I respect and understand. However, Alexander McQueen is an educational and rich brand. Rather than trying too hard to please the buyers and the media, Sarah Burton and the entire Alexander McQueen team have decided to create something that defines modern opulence for menswear. Oscar Wilde, where the collection draws most of its inspiration, was a writer who opted to live his life in search of the most romantic and beautiful things he could get his hands on. No doubt an aesthete, Wilde cloaked himself in Victorian fur capes, gem incrusted tie pins, and lush embroidery on any surface he found applicable. His philosophy obviously came through in his writing, when he often described the beauty of floral gardens, velvety interior design, and intricate oil paintings. This lushness translates into this McQueen collection with mohair, velvet, and brocade suiting, fur trimmed overcoats, and cashmere sweaters. To make the silhouettes modern and not straight out of Henry Keen's illustrations for "The Picture of Dorian Gray", the McQueen team added elements of punk within. Bondage straps, torn sweaters, safety pin piercings, and heavy, steel-toed combat boots hardened the collection and made it more desirable. In terms of color choice, canary yellow made a surprising appearance for suiting not seen at all on other menswear collections. Of course there was classic suiting colors in black, dark grays, and camel, but they were usually decorated with baroque prints and William Morris-eque details. With all of this regality and ornamentation, esteemed fashion reporter Tim Blanks questioned the wearability of these clothes, calling out their "innate costumeyness". Blanks found too much separation between these clothes and what is happening in the real world. However I believe we need esapism in fashion. Especially when the real world hits us in the head every time we go on Twitter or Facebook. Escapism in these physical clothes are what makes this collection valid. 

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2017 Menswear Review

     Alexander McQueen opted out of a runway show for the house's men’s Spring/Summer 2017 collection. Instead of the problem of having too strong of a theme and simple references like the last Spring/Summer collection the year before, this collection showed multiple different motifs. There was an element of India exoticism in embroidery and structure of some of the fantastic overcoats. Images and prints of the safari like zebra and leopard pelts and cave drawings on entire suits and soft jackets display a theme of humid climates and the ecosystem of Africa throughout. An interesting interpretation of leopard print which covered suits layered onto models who were standing on top of a leopard pelt in the set gave a twisted sense of animal hunters of the past, those rich aristocrats who boasted about their killings in the safari. The more exotic, the better, as they saw. Separate, but still relevant in theme, Darwinism was a key word used to describe last fall’s menswear collection, and I think of it this time around too, interestingly enough. Perhaps it’s the leopard, or the note-like diagrams of tigers with handwriting and postage stamps. It sort of ties everything together, this sort of talismans collected by Englishmen of the past from the East and Africa. The word "talisman" was used in describing the jewelry of the fall men's collection as well. The large crystal earrings and mouth piercings adorned by almost every model are menacing and mesmerizing, to say the least. It is fantastic that the jewelry is beautiful and delicate, but also hard with sinister undertones. But then again that’s always been the spirit of McQueen. Delicacy and darkness, but strong. McQueen menswear itself offers modernity, not just stuff old suits that look tired and too historic. The footwear, interestingly, contrasts with the embroidered frock coats and celebration suiting because they are classically shaped sneakers. These sneakers add an pleasing sense of ease to the collection, something that wakes up a collection that some may consider too formal. I liked that this collection was a softer and lighter version of the last menswear collection, because that particular collection was a turning point for McQueen menswear. In this collection, there is the similar contradicting historical yet modern tailoring, but in breathable materials with leg room and some of the arms cut off. McQueen menswear is stating its codes during a time in fashion where everything seems to be changing and the idea of luxury fashion seems to be uncertain to many of its critics and commentators. In fact, McQueen menswear seems stronger than the  overtly commercial and almost superficial womenswear. Hopefully, we see as much care and creativity in womenswear in the future of McQueen as in menswear, but we shall see. McQueen menswear this season inspires and creates a moody world partially separate from the boring reality of today.

Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2016 Menswear Review

     Alexander McQueen menswear has officially risen to a new level. Everything about this collection was supreme to me. Everything. The ambience, the choice in models, the styling. The jewelry! All exceptional. There's always references to history with McQueen, no doubt, and this collection isn't an exception.  Gorgeous amounts of tailoring and beautiful silhouettes built the framework. The talisman-like ornaments that pierced skin and lapels were a particularly fantastic display. I loved the antique and exquisite dangling earrings, massive rings, and thick and heavy body chains that were lain across the torsos of two models. The direct references to the punk aesthetic mixed with Victorian like colors and shapes created the best tension. The overall story, as told by Sarah Burton backstage after the show, was Charles Darwin's obsession with collecting and understanding specimens. If you look closely at the shirts peeking out of the large coats and blazers, you will see handwritten script mixed with the ongoing moth motif. Which brings us to the first major motif of this collection. Moths were laid out displayed across suit jackets and trousers, silk shirts, and coats. One must make the connection that moths are extremely important for the fashion industry, because they are the upmost creator of fine silks. You could see this fine material in oversized shirts and edges of flowing coats in this collection as well as tuxedo stripes along pants that separated at the hem line to create a new shape. I suppose the moth has  to do with the idea of collecting, and that refined, elegant approach to science in history.  Back in Darwin's day, you listened to classical music, walked over granite floors, and dressed to the nines with your talismans from foreign lands to show that you had stature. I believe that there is something mesmerizing about that idea. Along with the moth, there were blooms of  dark flowers printed on that emanated dark and moody beauty that you will always get at a McQueen show. I have noticed that this goes with the McQueen brand's history with morbid florals of the Victoriana. I believe this collection pushed Alexander McQueen menswear to new heights, without being overtly cutting edge or stuffy. It was the perfect blend of contemporary and historical, which was what caught Isabella Blow's eye at Lee McQueen's graduate show almost 25 years ago and what created his career. 

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2016 Ready-to-Wear Review

     Sarah Burton made it known to everyone who asked that this collection was inspired by the Huguenot people, a French Protestant sect that settled in Spitalfields during the late 17th century. The Huguenots were excellent embroiderers, who were fantastic at making silks, making Spitalfields one the greatest silk exporters at that time. According to legend, when they made the pilgrimage to London, many Huguenots only had seeds and bulbs of different florals in their pockets. It is important to understand Sarah Burton's references when dissecting an Alexander McQueen collection, because without it, it could assumed that this collection (or any collection she has headed) as just another stint at Victoriana or an interpretation of the Arts and Crafts movement. However, as excellent as these inspirations are regardless, there is always a much deeper meaning within the exquisite clothes at Alexander McQueen. Firstly, there seems to be an element of fragility and softness in this collection that I feel moves the brand forward because it is something Lee Alexander McQueen had never done. Rather than transforming the women into sea creatures, murderous animals, or mentally insane patients, as Lee McQueen would've done, Sarah Burton manages to show the pure woman in soft makeup and lightly brushed locks and send them down the wooden catwalk in soft wrapped silks, sliced and frayed taffeta, and expert tailoring. This collection is separate from different McQueen collections because there wasn't anything strict about it. No corsetry, no binding with harnesses, only soft clothes with couture-like embroidery. In previous collections like VOSS (Spring/Summer 2001), for example, the clothes were so spectacular and original that many deemed them unwearable. This collection, however, was still spectacular and original but most, if not all, of these clothes are wearable. Fantastic coats that seem organized and deconstructed at the same time, soft dresses and kimonos in dusty pinks and creams, and embroidered denim jackets and distressed jeans are all examples of this. Some of the best pieces included warped coats and jackets that had a decadence of historicism and modernism. There was heavy silver chains over some jackets that were incredible, along with thinner necklaces over dresses that will sell well. In conclusion, this collection was seminal and beautiful with soft beauty and intoxicating historicism. 

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2016 Menswear Review

     Last season, Alexander McQueen presented a collection of regiment members of the Great War boasting "honour", "valour", and "truth" on the chests of the models. This season moved to the sea and the Navy. This was evident in the nautical motifs such as star compasses and anchors in navy blue printed on off-white suits. The first two looks in fact, were sharply tailored and stark white with navy embroidery printed on the chest of jackets and down the legs of trousers like tattoos. The second look specifically had faux epaulettes and badges on a double-breasted jacket. The overall color palette of the collection was a mixture of navies, cobalt blues, blacks, and whites, with a few total denim blue looks that were distressed at points.  The last three looks were covered in a collage type print made of 18th century maps and their coinciding sea monsters. There were kaleidoscopic prints covering entire suits like patchwork pieces of a striped flag. Another, rather curious, print was of what looked like sumo wrestling positions or some other type of fighting. The nautical theme was exampled in one jacket in particular that had large metal eyelets like portholes along a long navy hull of a ship. During the presentation, I couldn't help but notice that the strongest pieces in the collection were on top. The massive double-breasted jackets and asymmetrical sweaters are always a focal point on each look that displayed them.  The overall cuts of the clothes, including the trousers, were looser and more flowing then past seasons. Cropped white trousers flowed freely and suit trousers were hemmed just above the ankle. There was a mixture of shoes that morphed from polished derbies to high top sneakers and hybrids in between. Overall, it was  a strong collection with nautical inspiration to push the Alexander McQueen menswear front further. 

Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2015 Ready-to-Wear Review

     Sarah Burton's Fall/Winter 2015 presentation for Alexander McQueen brought back the romance. For a microsecond, I thought this collection would be very ecclesiastical, but it fact, it was a bit deeper than that. Frizzy hairdos, layered clothes and white, wet eyes brought a theme to a new high. The hair selection actually evoked McQueen's Spring/Summer 2007 "Sarabande" and Fall/Winter 2008 "The Girl Who Lived in a Tree" collections. With all that's going around with Alexander McQueen, the V&A exhibition of Savage Beauty, SHOWstudio.com's projects highlighting McQueen's early years in London as well as previously unseen footage of the late designer, and two books published already this year on McQueen, interest seems to be at a high. This is reason enough for the brand today to present something that calls back Lee McQueen's work as well as move it forward to the future. Thus, this show was presented in the Conciergerie in Paris, where McQueen hosted his "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" show during the Fall/Winter 2002 collection. As it happens, this venue is also the place where Marie Antoinette was held in jail before her public execution on the guillotine in 1793. So there's the morbidity of McQueen. But what about the other things? There was the strong woman, wrapped in structured jackets of etched leather and printed softer fabrics. She sashayed down the aisle in square toed heels and wore a high collar that held her head high and straight.There were beautifully cut ruffles on dresses and harness-like lace across chests and necks. Similar to last season, Sarah Burton seems to play with the tension of constriction and loose flow, other examples including belted over coats and dresses. I particularly like Look 22, with a deep red fur collar contrasting a black and even deeper green printed coat fraying at the hemline. This specific look evokes Lee McQueen's Fall/Winter 1996 "Dante", Fall/Winter 1997 "It's a Jungle Out There", and Fall/Winter 1998 "Joan" collections. Overall, a strong and beautiful collection with incredible pieces that express enticing ideas for the future of the Alexander McQueen brand without forgetting it's incredible past. 

Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2015 Menswear Review

     World War I brought the ability for any guttersnipe to gain honor fighting for king and country in the early 20th century England. That being said, Alexander McQueen's Fall/Winter 2015 Menswear collection showed a Great War aesthetic. The first models stepped out in double breasted pinstriped suits stamped with bold words: "Honour", "Valour", and "Truth" across the jackets. Underneath these jackets were dark shirts with leather ruffles. Those suits transformed into turtle neck sweaters with the stamp motif and long suit coats with silk floral strips wrapped intricately around the wearer. The floral then graphed onto black sweaters, and covered pants and coat combinations. The colors transitions from blacks, to greys, to deep army greens, to luxurious reds, and shocks of blues. This is quite a contrast from last year's fall menswear collection. Rather than a hard, zippered, and dark image, this McQueen man is softer, going from rags to riches through military styles and perfect tailoring (a McQueen staple). Another McQueen staple, relevant to all of the brand's shows, is the sense of dark humor. This showed in the awkward greased hair and big creeper shoes. It created tension from the expert cuts in suiting. The models wearing these excellent pieces shuffled along the catwalk, like what they were displaying was foreign to them. The show concluded with two looks with white shirts and  black suits embellished with glittering stars, similar to the glittering 1920s period of exuberance following the Great War. 

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2015 Ready-to-Wear Review

      Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2015 collection was shown in a black oak room that displayed two massive white sculptures of orchids. The brilliant white sculptures were designed by Marc Quinn, an artist who focuses on nature as well as the human condition. It brought an artistic beauty the show worked around in. When the first model emerged, her knee high lace up boots clacking to the beat of the music. Her face was incased in a black plastic mask that brought about an avant-garde feel. With McQueen, avant-garde is always expected. There was a harmony of Eastern influences. Samurai armor-like harnesses and face masks layered over soft florals of kimonos. This wasn't all together new territory for McQueen, considering Lee McQueen's Spring/Summer 2001 "VOSS" collection, which dealt with Eastern Exoticism, for example. However of course, that collection was much more uncomfortable and extreme. This time around, Sarah Burton has relaxed the aggression and given a much more soft and elegant look for the McQueen buyer. This doesn't mean that Lee McQueen is lost, it isn't an abandonment and reinvention of the brand. There still is avant-garde dark beauty that made people pay attention to Alexander McQueen. Upon further investigation into these beautiful clothes, I noticed that harnesses and different panels aren't neatly sewn together or layered over each other. Rather, they were pieced together loosely, exposing thin amounts of skin. So, the not all the clothes aren't as simple as they may seem. Sarah Burton must love her details. But of course, the devil is in the details, as they say. Even though the clothes were heavily structured with sharp tailoring and rich fabrics, there was a sexuality to it all that's quite riveting. Perhaps it's the shiny black leather straps up against sheer sleeves. Perhaps its hard black leather painted with vibrant reds and whites. There's a force in this collection, it makes me smile that it hasn't been lost in the brand since the loss of it's creator more than four years ago.

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2015 Menswear Review

     Sarah Burton said that she wanted a fresh start for Alexander McQueen with this show and that idea was clearly palpable. When the first few looks emerged, I sensed a soft, urban influence over expert and classic tailoring. Double breasted white blazers were splashed with bright blues and yellows in an abstract, graffiti way. Those bright blues and yellows changed to blacks and reds. One particular garment caught my eye: the interestingly cut white blazer that was sliced at the bottom. It looked like two different blazers, still attached to each other by red silk. I like the large belt over the top of the blazer motif. The pairing seems constricting but also boasting, in a way. In some looks, the trousers seemed notably baggy. Other pants were tailored into slim cuts. Shorts were also in the mix, paired with long and thin color-blocked socks that stopped at the knee. Throughout the progression of the show, mainly white ensembles morphed into contrasting blacks and checkered prints. One particular look that viewers really seemed to love was the grey double breasted suit with the contrasting houndstooth print on the lapel and around the button fastenings. Overall, I loved the elements of mixing pristine English-looking suits with dark streetwear. Patent black leather crossed over large coats in black and red. Perhaps it’s my obsession with punk, but I couldn’t help but think of those rebels in the 1980s that stood outside, perhaps smoking a cigarette and discussing rebellious things. Alexander McQueen’s latest menswear show certainly has something that has never been seen in McQueen menswear. Simplicity, perhaps. I think it’s a lot less intricate and detail orientated than last year’s collection. There wasn’t any lace or lace printing, which I thought was a McQueen menswear signature. Regardless, I think Sarah Burton achieved to what she wanted to achieve. A clean slate, something new, something fresh.

Alexander McQueen: the Man, the Brand, and the Shows

Few designers have drastically changed the way the fashion world has thought about clothing like Lee Alexander McQueen. He created elaborate fashion shows that expressed how he felt about certain hard-hitting topics like the treatment of women in different cultures and how history may repeat itself in the future decades. Sometimes he shocked and even terrified his audience, while sometimes he mesmerized them with clothes that showed the beauty of a woman’s silhouette. The fashion journalists and buyers never missed a show and he kept them coming back by always being unexpected when bringing fashion into the twenty-first century.

Lee Alexander McQueen was born on March 17, 1969. He was the son of a schoolteacher and taxi cab driver, and had two other brothers and three sisters. They all managed live in a small apartment together. When he was very young, McQueen would like to peek out of his third-story bedroom window and stare at the birds that curiously flew around his neighborhood. The bird watching developed into a routine McQueen created for himself. He would go outside in his yard to watch the birds fly and draw them along with clothes that they inspired. His archival collections today show this budding obsession, with flying bird prints, feathers, and structures resembling the shapes of sitting birds. Once his mother found these drawings, she realized the potential in her son. She told him to “Go ahead and try to make clothes.” because many of his distant family members were “involved in tailoring at one point or another” (McQueen and I).

As a young adult, Lee McQueen worked as a tailor at Savile Row in central London and would party at night in knock-off couture that he and his comrades would create out of things he found around the house.  In later years, McQueen would often say that he was a bored punk who would draw obscene things on the inside of coats while tailoring exquisite suits for the super rich. Besides this, he wanted to learn how to create every type of clothing available and how to execute each garment with keen tailoring. He left the stuffy offices of tailoring at Savile Row because of his boredom and looked for work elsewhere. He discovered Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London and asked for a job. Bobby Hillson, the then Course Director, had said:

  I noticed him hovering outside my office and he kept asking for a job. I knew that this was out of the question, because he was about the same age as the students and no one would ever take him seriously. But I sensed something about him and became intrigued. (McQueen and I)

 McQueen was then asked to bring in samples of his tailoring, as well as some drawings. He was accepted as a student the same day.

From there, his long time friend Isabella Blow discovered him. She was a fashion journalist who would attend events with Anna Wintor and Andy Warhol. She noticed a beauty in McQueen’s work that not everyone understood at the time. McQueen then rented out any place he could find and buy fabric with his unemployment benefits. He would stage fashion shows and Isabella Blow would bring the British press. The other fashion journalists were hinged on his unique and avant-garde clothing. Isabella Blow would always be around backstage, going through the clothes and giving him tips. Blow was the one that suggested using McQueen’s middle name, Alexander, for the label because she thought the clothes would sell better.

His empire expanded and Lee Alexander McQueen soon became known as the rebel king of fashion for his outspoken attitude and showmanship towards his fashion shows. Sophisticated members of the fashion elite would see his clothes as beautiful, but his personality as anything but. He swore loudly, made perverted jokes, and often mocked the press. However, he was actually quite humble and kind to those around him. For example, he was extremely kind to his mother Joyce, his team, his models, and his closest friends. He would always care for anyone who needed him, and would send his best clothes to his loved ones after the fashion shows.

In the spring of 1992, while studying at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Lee McQueen debuted his first full on fashion show for his classmates and other members of the fashion business. He named his collection “Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims” (Savage) and the clothes matched the sense of eeriness. The color scheme was monochromatic red and black. Victorian structured overcoats were paired with contemporary slim pants and tops. With this, McQueen managed to mix vintage styles of centuries passed with wearable and easy clothes, something that became one of his trademarks throughout the years.

Once he graduated from Central Saint Martins, his comrade Isabella Blow took him under her wing, bought the entire collection, and put in an article about him in British Vogue Magazine (Voguepedia). Interested readers began looking for his shows that appeared in any space he could find like abandoned warehouses or studios. From his Autumn/Winter 1993 to Spring/Summer 1996 collections, highly tailored clothes were slashed, spray painted, and unfinished to show his ability as a clothing designer to deconstruct his clothes as well as construct them in an avant-garde way (Savage). He and his team were seen as rebels going against the system of super models put on a pedestal. They were highly creative clothiers who wanted to change the way people thought about women and different subcultures.

For example, in perhaps his most controversial collection of the time entitled “Highland Rape,” he showed beautiful women as though their flowing embroidered gowns had been attacked by tearing and staining the fabric. He also had the model’s makeup smeared and blotched, as though they had been crying. The press was outraged, questioning whether McQueen and his clothes were a suitable image to pay attention to. Lee Alexander McQueen struck back, saying:

 (This collection) was a shout against English designers… doing flamboyant Scottish clothes. My father’s family originates from the Isle of Skye, and I’d studied the history of the Scottish upheavals and the Clearances. People were so unintelligent they thought this was about women being raped- yet “Highland Rape” was about England’s rape of Scotland! (Savage)

McQueen’s love of heritage was evident in this collection, as well as many others, with it’s beautiful red tartan dresses contrasting against the lightly stained lace.

            Other known fashion creators of the time started noticing the Alexander McQueen brand and wanted McQueen and his creative team to design for them. One major brand in particular was the House of Givenchy located in Paris. The well-known fashion company wanted Lee McQueen as creative director, after only eight shows for his own brand. He accepted, and his team moved to Paris to start working on new collections for Givenchy and the Alexander McQueen brand. The clothes from the first collection were criticized for their over-flamboyancy to the classic brand. It was noted as McQueen’s first ever failure as a designer (Thurman). He came back though, as all amazing designers do, and did something fantastic; he reinvented the classic style of Givenchy in the days of Audrey Hepburn and gave the clothes an updated look with creative prints and brighter colors.

With haute couture now under his belt, McQueen was creating more sophisticated clothes for his own brand back in London. From the Spring/Summer 2000 show “Eye” to the Spring/Summer 2005 show “It’s Only a Game” McQueen laid down the aggression seen before in his earlier collections of the 1990s. He began to use more expensive fabrics in his creation and tackle more sophisticated ideas. Instead of attacking his audience to grab their attention, he directed theatrical presentations that were layered with cultural influences of different regions across the planet.

One major collection during this time was the Spring/Summer 2001 collection entitled “Voss”. This collection was held inside of a one-way glass box, where his audience had to look at their reflection for two straight hours. Then, the interior lights flickered on, and the audience could see into the stage, but the models couldn’t see out. The clothes were mesmerizing adaptations of Eastern garments like the kimono that was hand embroidered with beautiful images of ducks and chrysanthemums. There were also unconventional objects that were used in the clothes, like taxidermy owls attached to shoulders of dresses and trains of gowns made of long black feathers and pieces of red dyed plastic. Then, halfway through the show, all of the models left the glass box as a massive spotlight focused on the middle of the stage. A single dress emerged made entire of razor clam shells, and the model wearing it began to tear and break the shells off of herself in an insane rage. The show continued with westernized business suits in pastel colors until the shrill sound of loud beeping commenced, and a glass box within the glass box exploded, revealing a woman covered in live moths. The lights went out again, and the nearly hour-long presentation had ended, with the models staring at themselves in the mirrored glass.

The audience was shocked, amazed, and utterly confused. While the clothes were fantastic, the theatrics were disturbing and journalists of every kind were wondering what was running through Lee Alexander McQueen’s mind and if he was a safe person running such a grand fashion empire. The theme of the collection, as well as other collections of the time, was the treatment of mental illness. He believed that mental illness wasn’t treated correctly in history. He showed this in different collections when his models would play the part of an ill person, who would be forced to join the circus, murdered, abandoned by society, or forced to live on deserted islands. 

McQueen decided, after many years of shock and aggression, to lighten up his collections from Autumn/Winter 2005 to Spring/Summer 2010. He decided to show women that were purely sophisticated and beautiful. He looked towards the bright future of fashion, rather than the dark history of the past. Of course, edgy theatricality was always there, but it was lighter, and easier to swallow. For example, his Autumn/Winter 2009 collection consisted of revisited clothes that he had created before. This included the edgy glamor of the 1990s, with the timelessness of his work at the House of Givenchy. He put his models in a post-apocalyptic setting; with spray painted lampshades and car tire rims as hats and bags, as a form of avant-garde recycling (Savage). Most critics enjoyed it because he was showing clothes that were quite beautiful in an artistic way, while adding connotations of the worldwide financial recession of the time.

Also revisited during this era from 2005 to 2010, was his obsession with technology. This was something he lightly played around with in the late 1990s. It was mostly evident with his final official collection for Spring/Summer 2010 entitled, “Plato’s Atlantis”. Here he had his stage set up with two enormous robotic arms that housed high-definition cameras that could move on command around the entire runway. Behind the catwalk was an enormous screen where videos were displayed and where the cameras showed what they were filming on the catwalk to give a look of infinite space on the stage. The cameras were also linked to the Internet, where the show could be watched live on Alexander McQueen’s webpage.

The actual clothes of this collection are now known to be some of his best work. They told the story of hybrid sea creatures who wore twelve inch high heels that resembled armadillos. Each outfit was made of highly printed silk and leather that was created by a new invention of printing elaborate things directly onto a fabric. Here the model’s hair was braided and sculpted to heights that didn’t seem possible and special effect make up and prosthetics were added to the face to give models an alien creature look.

The constant need to be creative and better himself after every collection stressed McQueen. Under this enormous pressure, he began to develop depression after the tragic death of his friend, Isabella Blow, in 2007 (McQueen and I). She had killed herself, not able to handle her own unsettling mental complications. Despite this, McQueen continued his work, constantly pushing himself as an artist of clothing. But once again he was struck with grief when his mother, Joyce, passed away in 2010 of cancer, just three months after Alexander McQueen’s arguably greatest collection.

On February 11, 2010 Lee Alexander McQueen died at the age of 40. He had hung himself, not being able to cope with his depression and the loss of two women he loved most. Many of his fans poured out their grief with flowers and notes left in front of his apartment and his retail locations across the world. His funeral was held at Saint Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge and included many close friends, both celebrity and not. At the end of the service, a dozen or so pipers came out onto the steps of the church and played as his brothers carried his casket on their shoulders, as a final salute to the man who changed fashion forever.

Shortly after the death of the great designer, the Metropolitan Museum of Art paired with the Alexander McQueen brand and Daphne Guinness, an heiress and close friend to McQueen, to display his single greatest works in an exhibition that ran from May 4^th to August 7^th, 2011 called “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” (Givhan). The exhibition was meant to raise awareness to the fact that what Alexander McQueen was creating was, in fact, art. It was one of the most visited exhibitions the museum had ever had, bringing in all different types of people from fashion icons to tourists.

After the Metropolitan Museum exhibition closed, Daphne Guinness today tries to keep the memory of both Lee McQueen and their mutual friend, Isabella Blow alive today. She does so by raising awareness to mental illness that led to both suicides (Mead). She also recently opened up the exhibition “Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore!” displaying Blow’s elaborate outfits she would wear to any event.

Also after the death of Lee McQueen, Sarah Burton, McQueen’s right hand woman, took over the company and began to continue the brand’s collections with grace and structure (Savage). She now shows the brand’s beauty with ethereal collections that make its audience feel like they have been transported into a dream that no other fashion designer could ever create. Although the man is irreplaceable, Burton has given new life to a brand that will live on.

Looking back on his work, Lee Alexander McQueen managed to create the most elaborate and stunning fashion shows ever seen. He loved to give an elaborate story to his clothes and would create sets on his runways that matched the created story. He would even go as far as altering the way his models looked, with alien-like prosthetics usually seen in today’s science fiction movies. Even without the smoke and mirrors, McQueen crafted incredible clothes that were art pieces just as much as they were garments.

Alexander McQueen inspired a new generation of young designers to find a way to make clothes that haven’t been created yet. He wanted to convey the thought that anything was possible with fashion, and to this day, because of the Internet and social media, anyone with a passion can go out and share their creativity with the world, just as McQueen did. He managed to change the way fashion was held. Instead of something strictly professional and only for the rich and powerful, he made high fashion an art that could be experienced by anyone who wants to see. He stated many times that he was a restless artist, who chose fashion as his medium. McQueen said in an interview for British Vogue in 1994, saying:

My clothes give you an intensity that you cannot bear, when something makes you feel that deeply inside, it makes you reflect on your own life. (TIME)

 He will be and has been already remembered as a creative genius of an artist who brought fashion into the twenty-first century.

The designer will also be remembered as the founder of a brand that produced fabulously elaborate clothes for shows that told stories that could’ve only been imagined by the designer himself. He will be forever missed and his death shocked the fashion world in a similar way his intensely hard-hitting shows did. McQueen allowed up and coming designers to be more and more creative and opened up fashion to the media of the Internet for the future.

Updated Works Cited

"Alexander McQueen." TIME 27 Dec. 2010: 142. EBSCOhost. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.

Givhan, Robin. "Alexander McQueen's Haunting World." Newsweek 18 Apr. 2011: 36-41.       
           EBSCOhost. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.

McQueen and I. Dir. Louise Osmond. Perf. Detmar Blow, Isabella Blow, Naomi Cambell. Blast!   
          Films, 2011. Youtube.com.

Mead, Rebecca. "Precarious Beauty." New Yorker 26 Sept. 2011: 60-66. EBSCOhost. Web. 04        
          Feb. 2014.

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Bolton, Andrew, Alexander McQueen, Susannah Frankel, Tim Blanks, and Sølve Sundsbø. Alexander 
          McQueen: Savage Beauty. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. Print.

“Alexander McQueen.” Voguepedia. Condé Nast Publishing, n.d. Web. 11 March 2014.

Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2014 Ready-to-Wear Review

     After learning about this show from @WorldMcQueen on Instagram, I instantly became excited. The images posted were dark showings of the sky, moss in the woods, florals, and bright blue butterfly wings. I thought of a fierce and magical woodland creature. Very "Natural Dis-tinction Un-natural Selection", Lee Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2009 collection. But when I viewed the actual collection, my thoughts were quite distant from my predictions. The first piece I actually saw was a white dress that was embroidered with various symbols of the crescent moon and stars. It seemed like the witches of Salem were making a more historically correct comeback from the Fall 2007 collection. I kept looking and noticed once again,what I like to call "Sarah's Silhouette". That is, thick sleeves, rounded shoulders, and knee length ends of dresses and skirts. I felt like there was something that Sarah Burton keeps doing to the Alexander McQueen brand that the late Lee McQueen never did: made the clothes soft and sweeter for a woman's frame. Lee McQueen had always stated that he wanted the women he dressed to be feared, giving them a domineering frame with sharp tailoring and edgy embellishments. This collection had the edgy-ness needed for it to be called an Alexander McQueen collection. However, in this collection I see a covering up of Burton's women. Immensely thick overcoats and dresses were covered with hand-added feathers and furs of various animals. One example was the well-talked-about coat made of the  black and white fur of a skunk. The hair was braided, the makeup soft with the exception of the "owl-eye" fur eyebrow attachments. The set was an uneven prairie. What I got: Native Americans and colonists in America during the 1600s. Very interesting, I think, for a British brand during Paris Fashion Week to showcase a historical yet contemporary collection with this possible influence. Sarah Burton actually said that this collection was a children's story, and that made sense. Black velvet boots matched with white lace socks and school-girl silk ties gave each outfit a naïve look. The schoolgirl's daydream of Native American princesses and Pilgrims morphed into colorful and futuristic punks with their laced boots going knee high, and outfits more glitzy and sophisticated, if that makes sense. Bottom line: the clothes were dreamy. The printed coats, fluffy collared dresses, and feathered and white laced gowns were a great contrast from last season's collection of futuristic African tribal influences. To me, and I feel like I've stated this before, Alexander McQueen, whether it's under Lee or Sarah, could and can do no wrong.

McQ Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2014 Ready-to-Wear Review

     To follow up on the previous post on Alexander McQueen's new Fall/Winter menswear line, I bring you McQ's latest line for menswear as well. This brand, if you don't know the difference, is slightly less expensive than the Alexander McQueen signature label. It could also be thought as for a younger audience, more towards a late-teen early-twentys fashion rebel. With this collection, that rebel took the form of a 1980s punk in the streets of London. This punk donned silk scarfs wrapped tightly around his neck, leather patched pants (sometimes in a edgy and unique razor print), buffalo check moto jackets, and always, patent leather combat boots. But the punk could also be classy, showing that McQ by Alexander McQueen is a LUXURY brand. Structured suit pieces also were a part of this collection. Double breasted overcoats were paired with flat black dress pants rolled to still show off the boots. In one case, under the overcoat was a printed gingham dress shirt in black and white. My personal favorites were the smeared printed rolled pants paired with the black and red sweater and scarf. Another was  the logo embossed sweater that resembled a creepy yet fun cartoon face paired with a buffalo check bag. Finally, out of my favorites, was the matching bear stamped contrasting white pants and black t-shirt under a cashmere black cardigan. The overall pairing made that look an OUTFIT that could be all pulled together as something very interesting and compelling. Another great collection from the McQ line to add the brand!

Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2014 Menswear Review

     Like I have stated before, I love McQueen. Especially this collection: the latest menswear show for the fall and winter of 2014. The entire collection flourished as a tribute of the always-edgy looks of Alexander McQueen past. I think the label’s past is perhaps the greatest and most fantastically macabre history of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. With that in mind, this specific collection reeked of dark masculine intensity and beautiful pieces of clothing taken to the next level. Of course, or else it wouldn’t really be McQueen, now would it? To truly break it down, the amazing cuts of overcoats with suits emits a certain historical image of a dapper gentleman. The grey-scale color palette also reflected that feeling of a time of our ancestors, now gone by. Then, of course, there was the full on pink tartan kilt ensemble that radiated dapper dandyism and strong Scottish ancestry (also very past McQueen). The details were fresh and totally impeccable. Words of poetry were scrawled across the crisp white collars of dress shirts and embroidered on black topcoats. Other adornments included bold and contrasting symmetrical lines that highlighted the pattern of dark garments. For example, the black mohair sweater with white lines forming into squares appeared very pleasing to this guy’s eyes. I especially loved the gold zippers placed along the pleating of black kilts and along the buttoned edge of cardigans. To complete the look, black bird feathers were wrapped in the hair of models reminded me of something out of an Edgar Allen Poe poem. Dark and romantic just like the history of McQueen now long gone. But perhaps it’s not gone; nor did it ever leave. Perhaps it’s just a continuation of Alexander McQueen’s infamous menswear collections. I like that idea. The beauty of McQueen never left, its still there, maybe not in person, but in spirit.

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2014 Ready-to-Wear Review

    Sarah Burton went for a more modern, futuristic collection for Alexander McQueen at the most recent Spring/Summer show. This collection felt refreshing, after so many earlier shows by Mrs. Burton seeming too "19th century" for my tastes. In earlier collections, I sensed the silhouettes were constantly being recycled. The one behind the McQueen label today once said that she wanted to add a "woman's touch" to the fashion house. That was noticeable in collections before this. Now, she seemed to go back to Lee McQueen's obsession with "National Geographic" magazines. This collection started, with leather belted black and red ensembles at the beginning. The collection evolved and added other colors: white and gold bracelets that matched the gold helmet motif. Then, nine looks into the show, a overcoat with a black and white print emerged, and silver replaced the gold. The silver and white continued, until the razor-sharp mesh-looking fabric began to bleed, though not as savagely as the "ghosts of McQueen past" had.  The blood flow stopped, and the looks reformatted. They then took on a checkered and geometric sight to them. The geometric printing's texture shifted, making it more thick, as a pattern. After that theme, a new outfit emerged as a distant memory. It reminded me of McQueen's Fall 2009 collection, with the bold red, white, and black color scheme and black feathers. The feathers continued into a next look, minus the bold red. Finally, a rainbow of color mixing with black came in a somewhat futuristic textile I have not yet identified. It was alluring, and gave the impression of being awfully relevant to the long anticipated album, ARTPOP by Lady Gaga. An editorial with her wearing one of the last looks? One can only hope!

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2014 Menswear Review

     The latest menswear collection from Alexander McQueen was just what I had hoped for. It showed exactly what McQueen was, and still is, known for. Sharp tailoring, English historical fashion shown in a modern way, and just enough edge. They were "severe monochromatic" looks that screamed "high fashion," but then again, couldn't you say that that was what all of McQueen's runway shows were like?
     I truly adore all of Alexander McQueen runway shows and these shows are one of my largest inspirations for my wardrobe. The way the different fabrics and textures are mixed to create a true and perfect outfit are outstanding and cannot be compared.
     Actual individual pieces from this show are truly interesting. For example, the frayed and unfinished jumper looks like it has been left out in the sun. It is a truly unique piece and actually a part of a trend that I have noticed last winter, which is the punk-y, grunge-y look sweaters that are oversized, torn, and dark. Now this time for the future, they are sun bleached and lightweight.