Thursday, June 9, 2011

Remembering Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen and his contribution to the world of fashion are being rightfully commemorated with the Savage Beauty exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Exquisite pieces from the late designer's work will be displayed until the end of July. The curator of the exhibition, Andrew Bolton (with the support of Harold Koda), did a wonderful job displaying each piece beautifully, while capturing the overall feel of Alexander McQueen's work, telling the story behind each collection. Andrew Bolton explains that a main focus of the exhibition has been to capture the "themes and ideas that McQueen revisited throughout his career: polarized opposites, whether it’s to do with life or death, lightness or darkness, predator/prey, man/machine."
Click below to see many more photos from the exhibition.



Romantic Primitivism
“I try to push the silhouette. To change the silhouette is to change the thinking of how we look. What I do is look at ancient African tribes, and the way they dress. The rituals of how they dress. . . . There’s a lot of tribalism in the collections.” ~ Alexander McQueen

The Romantic Mind
“You’ve got to know the rules to break them. That’s what I’m here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.” ~ Alexander McQueen

Romantic Gothic and Cabinet of Curiosities
“People find my things sometimes aggressive. But I don’t see it as aggressive. I see it as romantic, dealing with a dark side of personality.” ~ Alexander McQueen

Romantic Nationalism
“The reason I’m patriotic about Scotland is because I think it’s been dealt a really hard hand. It’s marketed the world over as . . . haggis . . . bagpipes. But no one ever puts anything back into it.” ~ Alexander McQueen

Romantic Exoticism
“I want to be honest about the world that we live in, and sometimes my political persuasions come through in my work. Fashion can be really racist, looking at the clothes of other cultures as costumes. . . . That’s mundane and it’s old hat. Let’s break down some barriers.” ~ Alexander McQueen

Romantic Naturalism
“I have always loved the mechanics of nature and to a greater or lesser extent my work is always informed by that.” ~ Alexander McQueen
Visit the exhibition's website to read commentaries and detailed information about each piece.

Photography by The Photograph Studio and Solve Sundsbo via here.

1 comment:

  1. great post - i have plans to see the exhibit myself. McQ was truly an artist

    ReplyDelete

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