McQueen you Dream!

Savage Beauty

When it was announced that tickets for 'Savage Beauty' the long awaited exhibition that was to showcase collections from the late great Alexander McQueen, had gone live, whatsapp messages were flying everywhere and we pounced online to make sure we secured tickets for the opening week! Having a midweek break with Wednesdays off from lectures we took full advantage to book for the 18th March which was the day after what would have been Lee McQueens 47th birthday! I feel so thankful to have visited on the opening week, although it was busy the atmosphere was ridiculous and this was even before we entered the exhibition.

A portrait of Lee Alexander McQueen opened the exhibition which was created by his brother Gary McQueen. As an opening this gave me absolute goosebumps and nearly brought me to tears after gazing at the propelling portrait that transcends from a skull, a close association with the brand McQueen, to a portrait of lee the designer himself. I reminded myself of the crazy talent that lies behind the name Alexander McQueen when i recently revisited Lee's work watching 'McQueen & I'; a documentary of his creations and life. 

''I'm a romantic schizophrenic''

McQueen successfully created Powerful feelings and emotions through catwalk resulting in a theatrical experience and not just any fashion show. Dark imaginings, merge wonder and terror, incredulity and revulsion, the erotic and untamed. McQueen was above all driven by his fascination with the beauty and savagery of the natural world. 'Highland Rape' the collection that 'branded' McQueen as a British 'hooligan' opened the exhibition in an industrial like warehouse environment that was a palette of grey. In regards to concept this is one of my favourite collections from McQueen. It was obscene but so honest, and the raw way in which it was displayed alongside his MA work from Central Saint Martens was a good consistency. This collection is also where the infamous 'bumster' trousers were introduced to the fashion world.

           ''I want to empower women. I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.''

The appropriately named exhibition 'Savage beauty' revealed McQueens Savage and complex immagination combined with gothic romanticism. Often basing his work on dark subjects you could evidently see how McQueen drew inspiration from the Jack the Ripper Murders - 1888, the structure in which he cut and tailored his elaborat jackets were similar to fashions from the 19th century. Romantically gothic collections that exploit a paradox of relationships. Oscillating between life and death happiness and sadness, good and evil. Bird feathers making up entire dresses or enhancing already flamboyant shoulder structures, McQueen admitted the vulgar and grotesque content from directors Alfred Hitchcock's film, 'The birds' was the inspiration behind some pieces within the Gothic romanticism collection that was displayed in front of gold ornate mirrors in a very dark room, with only  various highlights on the garments.

                              ''I want to be the purveyor of a certain silhouette or a way of cutting so that when I'm dead and gone people will know that the twenty first century was started by Alexander McQueen.'' 

I took odd notes whilst exploring the exhibition, but this is a literal piece i wrote. - I literally feel like i've stepped into a fairy jewellery box. I don't know where to look its unbelievable and here I am gazing into my phone writing my initial reaction!!  You can watch as many catwalk shows for many hours, but you can never appreciate a real McQueen garment until you see it; combining the garment as well as my memory of watching the shows has created an emotional intensity of McQueens true talent for me.

McQueens catwalk presentations often play between victim and aggressor. Cabinet of curiosities displayed McQueens work created with Headdress designer Phillip Treacy and Jeweller Shaun Lee. Positioned in the centre was the legendary piece of art that was the white tube dress from his SS99 collection where in which two robots, that took two weeks of choreographing, spray-painted the dress worn by model Shalom Harlow. Some say the piece had very strong aggressive sexual references. McQueen himself explained that ''The Finale of this collection was inspired by an installation by artist Rebecca Horn of two shotguns firing blood-red paint at each other.''  

               "Fashion can be really racist, looking at the clothes of other cultures as costumes, that's mundane and it's an old hat. Let's break down some barriers."

                         

Romantic Naturalising Collection. "I use flowers because they die. My mood was dark and romantic at the time."

Plantos Atlantis was the final collection displayed by McQueen. He was worked with Nick Knight and SHOWstudio before he died to create the fashion film entailed 'Plantos Atlantis' before he died. Words to describe the collection would be Futuristic and holographic. The inspiration- an ice cap would melt meaning waters would rise on earth and humanity would go back to from whence it came. Inspired by Charles Darwin, on the origin of species, you can begin to make sense of the narrative from McQueen on adaptation of mankind. In the projected fashion film you can understand how McQueens work was moving forward with the digital age and how he was using his imagination combined this with developing technology to his advantage! It was said to be considered as one of McQueens greatest achievements.

I'm already planning to see the exhibition again in June around my birthday i honestly enjoyed it that much, so if you haven't already booked i highly recommend it; or i might book all tickets! Hands down the best exhibition i have ever been to! As you can see absolutely beaming… Tourist geek of the day!

With Love, DOAFSDO, x