Womenswear concession for luxury British brand in famous London department store. Since I loathe the concept of fast fashion – let alone what it does to destroy our planet – I can only admire and applaud Sarah Burton and all that McQueen stands for. It was a lofty promise, but he managed to pull it off, becoming one of the most revered fashion designers of all time, and bape sweatpants one of the select few who have been elevated to the status of artist.
Filtered through a powerful modernity McQueen’s work was, above all, driven by his fascination with the beauty and savagery of the natural world. The house of Alexander McQueen is distinctive for its innovative and uncompromising expression of unbridled creativity.
McQueen, the documentary, focuses more on the man behind the label than his exemplary sartorial creations and runway spectaculars. During that time, he would design up to ten collection a year between his and the Givenchy label. 2011: On May 4, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opens “Savage Beauty,” a retrospective exhibition of Alexander McQueen’s work curated by Andrew Bolton and Harold Koda.
He was such an assured designer that his forms and silhouettes were established from his earliest collections, and remained relatively consistent throughout his career. In 2003, he is also awarded the international designer of the year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
A Sarah Burton collection is like a landscape – always the same yet different in detail. With six children to support money was scarce and at age 16 McQueen dropped out of school to begin an apprenticeship on London’s Saville Row, the bastion of custom-made clothing for British gentlemen.