Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
If you live in or near NYC, hurry to see Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, a spectacular exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, before the show closes August 7.
The retrospective showcases McQueen’s core pieces, from his student days at London’s Central Saint Martins in the 90s, to his posthumous 2010 collection. Tragically, McQueen took his own life in March 2010, just days before his final show.
Walking into Savage Beauty is like descending into a dark,decaying, and lavishly appointed dungeon. Theatrical lights and gels, wind fans, multiple video screens, holograms and sound effects—including Handel’s Sarabande and wolf howls—immerse visitors in McQueen’s dark, romantic,controlled narrative. McQueen’s sartorial story themes include 19th century Romanticism, Victorian Goth, the Jacobite Rebellion and a dark futurism that imagines human “devolution” and its “time-space compression produced by the Internet.”
The Highland-inspired pieces are amongst McQueen’s most iconic. The designer’s family come from Skye and the island’s wild beauty—and decimation by 19th century British “clearances”—are embodied in…
- McQueen tartan form-fitting sheath with neckline and bodice of nude silk tulle embroidered with garnet-like red bugle beads.
- McQueen clan tartan kilt with off-white silk tulle underskirt and skin-colored silk bodice embroidered in black
Other astonishing pieces in the show:
- Billowing black silk, Venetian carnival opera coat (See photo above)
- Peau de soie gown sewn with silk and real flowers—worn while blooms were fresh and later, after they'd decayed. (See photo above)
- Shaun Leane vermeil crown of thorns and winding, attached thorn arm piece
- Dai Rees head piece of gilded in silver porcupine quills that cover the face like an asymmetrical fencing mask
