Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

Red + black ostrich feathers + glass medical slides painted red.  2001

If you haven't seen the "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" show yet,  it's been extended until August 7th, so hurry. We recommend that you experience it in person at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Second best is this comprehensive overview from the Museum's Website, without the crowds + spooky music.

Nude silk embroidered with silk + fresh flowers.  2007

White cotton spray-painted black + yellow with underskirt of white silk.  1999

Black duck feathers.  2009

Jacket of pink + gray bird's-eye embroidered with silk threads. 2001

Hundred's of people were waiting  just to buy an entrance ticket  into the Museum, last Friday evening. Many hundreds more were already in the museum, waiting on-line to get into the show, on the second floor. I heard the line time was around 1.5 hours, so plan accordingly. I strongly suggest purchasing an annual museum membership, for $70. One of the many perks of membership is that it allows  you to cut the line at the major shows - plus get a discount at the store! Lots of sign-up stations by the main admission line, just for that purpose, so take advantage - your feet will thank you.

Winged bodice of balsa wood, trouser of cream wool + cream silk lace.  1999

The show is somewhat disturbing. Yes, genius couturier, but too dark for comfort.

Coat, trouser + hat of black silk.   2002

Art is supposed to move you, right?

  I am no stranger to "different"  clothing, as I used to dress mannequins as a career. I designed the store windows from the most upscale of the Madison Avenue boutiques to the way downtown chic hot spots.  Particularly  between seasons, during sale time, I personally crafted clothes + headpieces for the display windows out of everything imaginable: newspaper-tulle-jute -leather-ribbons-plastic silverware... just about anything interesting I could find.  Since the real clothing had to be on the racks for a quick sell, not on the mannequins in the windows, the store fronts had to be provocative to draw passersby inside. That was back in the 80's, when store display was a true art: the Candy Pratts, Andy Warhol days.

As a driven student of my craft, I anxiously awaited  the semi-annual "market weeks" hosted by world famous mannequin companies, showing the latest body poses + cutting edge wig styles. Really ground breaking, edgy stuff.  It was a super fun career back then... but time marched on.

Life imitates art or art imitates life?

Similar, but different, the Alexander McQueen show, is haute fashion.  Sorry to compare but struck at the similarity between the exhibit design of masked fashion mannequins + the party scenes in Stanley Kubrick film, "Eye's Wide Shut".

The garments are true masterpieces:  made of unorthodox materials like duck feathers, dried flowers + lots of leather. Excellence in the details, is evident here.  The female proportion with it's historic references of corsets, were seen repeatedly: strong shoulder silhouettes with tiny waist lines.  The embroidery shown in the collections toward the end of the exhibit, revealed a passion for the beautiful side of couture, unlike the shock value of the deconstructionist pieces in the beginning.

Gray + white printed silk.  2010

One of the take away concepts of the show for me was the digitally scanned Gothic images of  high art, transferred onto fabric + incorporated into clothing.  The pattern looks like the ubiquitous Versace prints, to a higher level. A most successful merging of the newest digital  printing process, old world images + labor intensive needlework. This use of  technology + indulgent materials infused with the dark unconscious of  life, was McQueen's vocabulary.

I suppose the timely  popularity of the show is that McQueen's head designer, Sarah Burton, designed THE wedding dress for Kate Middleton?

Talk about modern infused with tradition!

Quite a bold choice for the Duchess.

Not to be overlooked is the perplexing suicide of the designer in 2010,  just 40.

Culture Rules.