Plato's Atlantis

“The way he's embracing new computer technologies and the drama of the moving image puts him at the leading edge of change.”

PARIS, October 6, 2009

McQueen's Spring/Summer 2010 show featured a sparkling, illuminated runway in which two sinister, robotic movie cameras on gigantic black booms ran back and forth, while a screen played Nick Knight's video of Raquel Zimmermann, lying on sand, naked, with snakes writhing across her body.



Then the models came out, dressed in short, reptile-patterned, digitally printed dresses, their gangly legs sunk in grotesque shoes that looked like the armored heads of a fantastical breed of antediluvian sea monster. McQueen, according to an internal logic detailed in a press release, was casting an apocalyptic forecast of the future ecological meltdown of the world: Humankind is made up of creatures that evolved from the sea, and we may be heading back to an underwater future as the ice cap dissolves.




The show premiered Lady GaGa's new single Bad Romance. GaGa's Bad Romance video features a pair of the collection's shoes as well as a costume designed by McQueen.

PUMA/SAMSONITE/MCQ

In addition to the mainline collections, partnerships have been formed with Puma in October 2005 for an unexpected and unique exploratory footwear collection and Samsonite in February 2007 resulting in a cutting edge luxury travel range. January 2006 heralded the birth of McQ Alexander McQueen a denim based ready to wear line (womenswear, menswear and accessories), manufactured and distributed worldwide by SINV spa.


MILAN, ITALY – JANUARY 20: The showroom is pictured during the presentation of the Alexander McQueen PUMA Sport-Fashion Apparel Collection on January 20, 2009 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Miguel Villagran/Getty Images for Puma







McQueen's collection for Samsonite, Black Label






McQ Fall 2009 by McQueen

A sea of neon, electric prints and a playful take on Eighties style defines the McQ AW09 collection. Subtly evolving from SS09’s club-inspired range, the designs hint at a similar flamboyance but retain a tough, subversive attitude. Channeling the eccentricity of seminal figures Grace Jones and Adam and the Ants, the collection salutes vintage pop icons with a quirky McQ nostalgia.













Grace Jones

Widows of Culloden/Fall 2006

PARIS, March 3, 2006


“The result was a poetic and technically accomplished tale that involved romantic images of Scottish fantasy heroines wandering glens and castle halls in vaguely Victorian tartan crinolines, bird-wing or antler-and-lace headdresses, feathered gowns, and pieces made from brocades that might have been dragged down from ancient wall-hangings.

Some of McQueen's references—like the ones that influenced his sinuous black velvet dresses—appeared to be culled from pre-Raphaelite paintings of Lady Macbeth; others, like a fierce, bell-skirted warrior-woman plaid dress with lace armlets, seemed to owe more to punk. On the down-to-earth side, there was plenty of McQueen's sharp and salable tailoring on show, and some great coats, like a herringbone fur chesterfield.”





“Only Alexander McQueen could provide the astonishing feat of techno-magic that ended his show. Inside an empty glass pyramid, a mysterious puff of white smoke appeared from nowhere and spun in midair, slowly resolving itself into the moving, twisting shape of a woman enveloped in the billowing folds of a white dress. It was Kate Moss, her blonde hair and pale arms trailing in a dream-like apparition of fragility and beauty that danced for a few seconds, then shrank and dematerialized into the ether.”





By the video maker Baillie Walsh, art-directed by McQueen.

A man of Character

Here are some extraxts from an interview with his mother Joyce McQueen. The interview offers great insight into McQueen's character which is reflected through his work. To view the whole interview visit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2004/apr/20/guesteditors

Joyce McQueen: If you could live and work as a designer in any era, which one would it be?
Alexander McQueen: Any time? Future as well?
JM: Future as well. But particularly the past.
AM: Let's stick to the past then. I'm thinking cavemen and loincloths.
JM: What about Tudors and Stuarts?
AM: Er ... I'm answering the questions! Most probably ...
JM: What about -
AM: I'm thinking ! Fifteenth-century Flemish, Netherlands. My favourite part of art. Because of the colours, because of the sympathetic way they approached life.
JM: Simplicity, you mean.
AM: I'm not going to get into a big art debate with you.
JM: No, I'm trying to get to the bottom of why you like that.
AM: 'Cause I think they were very modern for their times, in that period and in that part of the world.



JM: The calm part. You are often described as an architect of clothing, and I know that you have a keen interest in architecture. What is the most breathtaking building you've ever seen?
AM: Ronchamps, by Corbusier.


JM: What do you think of the modern buildings in London?
AM: I love the Gherkin.
JM: You do?
AM: I think it's fantastic.
JM: But you don't like any of the old architecture in London?
AM: Well, yeah, but it's not as nice as it is in Italy or Paris.


JM: Do you look at something else and say, "I could have done that as well"?
AM: Photo-journalism. It's art for the modern times. I think it captures a moment in time that is spontaneous and that reflects where we are. The one I couldn't have done is be an architect, because I don't have the brain capacity or the patience.
JM: What makes you furious?
AM: Bigotry.
JM: What makes your heart miss a beat?
AM: Love.
JM: Love for children? Love for adults? Love for animals?
AM: Falling in love.

L'enfant terrible

Born on March 17th 1969, in the East End of London, the son of a taxi driver, McQueen started making dresses for his three sisters at a young age and announced his intention of becoming a fashion designer. He has said that one of his earliest memories was from around the age of 3 when he drew a picture of a dress on a piece of bare wall which had been exposed by peeling wallpaper in the council house where his family lived. McQueen has jokingly called it his first design sketch.

He left school at the age of 16 and was immediately offered an apprenticeship at the traditional Saville Row tailors Anderson and Shephard and then at neighbouring Gieves and Hawkes, both masters in the technical construction of clothing.

From there he moved to the theatrical costumiers Angels and Bermans where he mastered 6 methods of pattern cutting from the melodramatic 16th Century to the razor sharp tailoring which has become a McQueen signature. Aged 20 he was employed by the designer Koji Tatsuno, who also had his roots in British tailoring. A year later McQueen travelled to Milan where he was gainfully employed as Romeo Giglis design assistant. He finally returned to London in 1994 where he completed a Masters degree in Fashion Design at St. Martins. His degree collection was famously bought in its entirety by Isabella Blow.

Alexander McQueen's early runway collections developed his reputation for controversy and shock tactics(earning the title "l'enfant terrible" and "the hooligan of English fashion", with trousers aptly named "bumsters", and a collection entitled "Highland Rape". McQueen is known for his lavish, unconventional runway shows, such as a recreation of a shipwreck for his spring 2003 collection, spring 2005’s human chess game and his fall 2006 show, Widows of Culloden, which featured a life-sized hologram of supermodel Kate Moss, dressed in yards of rippling fabric.

“Alexander McQueen is known for both the emotional power and raw energy of the shows as well as the romantic but determinedly contemporary nature of the collections. Integral to the McQueen culture is the juxtaposition between contrasting elements: fragility and strength, tradition and modernity and fluidity and severity. An openly emotional and even passionate viewpoint is realised with a profound respect and influence for the arts and crafts tradition.”