OceanofPDF.com 1 0 0 BACK I N L O N D O N L E F T In this outfit Mc Q u e e n has empha siz ed his beloved Edwardian a e sthe ti c by adding volupt uous padd ed hips to e x a g g e r a t e the h o u r g l a ss silhoue tt e . The d u s k y pink hue of the tailored silk jacket, its décolleté filled with flowers, and pleated ch iffon s k irt and train make for a romantic e n s e m b l e . O P P O S I T E S a r a b a n d e was one of McQueen’s most re fined and elegant col l e c tion s. Th is corseted dre ss, covered in a p p l i q u é d p e t a ls in tones of pink and d eep red, has a p u ff b a l l s k irt and narrow belt to empha size the female form. A glimpse of blac k lace at the bodice is a touch of s e n s u a l it y t y p i c a l of Mc Q u e e n . O V E R L E A F The o u tfits, hair and make-up in the A / W 2007 coll e c tion In M e m o r y of E liz a be th How, Salem 1692, had an E g y p ti an fe e l .
OceanofPDF.com BACK I N L O N D O N 101
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com 104 BACK I N L O N D O N S A R A B A N D E (S/S 2007) Presented on the c ir cul a r st age of the grand Cirque d’Hiver in Paris, McQueen’s S/S 2007 show cited a r ange of inspirations, including St anle y Kubrick’s 1975 film Ba rry Lyndon ; Marchesa Luisa Casati, the decadent It a li an heiress born in 1881 whose dark and dr ama ti c appe a r anc e saw her compared to a living work of a rt; and the Spanish a rtist Goya. The show saw McQueen turn back to an aesthetic of gothic romance, described in the Savage Be auty exhibition c a t a logue as “ fr a g i le beauty undercut with a sense of de c aying grandeur”. The melancholy mood wa s heightened by the models’ slow procession to a soundtrack of Handel’s baroque musical piece “Sarabande”, which wa s a lso used by Kubrick in his film. The collection wa s planted firmly in McQueen’s comfort zone of the nineteenth c entur y and the Edwa rd i a n era. The La tin influence c ame in the shape of flounces and ruffles, black lace and feathers. There was a lso a slimmer option on offer for the less flamboyant customer in the form of sharply tailored suits and narrow dresses in delicate soft tones of dove grey, faded rose, mauve and antique ivory. The symbolism of flowers in McQueen’s work was evident in the finale showpiece of a chiffon dress, its s k irt constructed entirely of fresh roses and hydr ang e a s as well as silk o r g anz a flowers. As the model wa l k ed, the flowers be g an to f a ll, a poignant comment from McQueen about the transient nature of life. As he told Harper’s B a z a a r : “It wa s a l l about decay. I used flowers be c ause they die.” IN MEMORY OF E L I Z A B E T H HOW, S A L E M 1692 (A/ W 2007) In one of McQueen’s da rkest shows to date, he referenced his dist ant relative, El iz a b et h How, who wa s a c cused of
OceanofPDF.com BACK I N L O N D O N 105 L E F T McQueen’s show In M e m o r y of E liz a be th How, Salem 1692 was one of his d a r ke st. Inspired by his anc e stor killed at the Salem Witch Trials, it inc lud ed o u tfits such as this she e r blac k dress with pagan ma r k i n g s, worn with a volumin ous blac k satin cloak and Swa r o v s k i- c r y s t a lcovered crescent- moon he addre ss by Shaun L e ane .
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com BACK I N L O N D O N 107 being a witch and hanged at the famous tri a ls held in Salem, Ma ss a chusetts, in 1692. The set comprised a huge inverted black py r amid hang ing from the c eiling and a black-sandcovered runway depicting a simil a rly oppressive red c r y st a l pentagram, a reference to E g y p t i a n pa g anism. McQueen included he addresses by Shaun Le ane which were covered in Swarovski c r y st a ls and featured the crescent moon and st a rs – p a g a n symbols of female moon-goddess rites – as well as gothic crosses and triba l ma r k i n g s on his designs. The show opened with disturbing ima g es t y p i c a l of McQueen’s shock t a c ti c s playing above the model’s heads, described in Vogue as “a macabre film – of naked women, swa rmi n g locusts, f a c es de c aying to s kul ls, and blood and fire”. However, the clothes were more about chang ing silhouettes as McQueen abandoned his traditional corseted hourgl a ss. Simil a r to the outfits in Sar abande, there were voluminous padded hips, and the designer continued to experiment with spherical shapes. But there were a lso tr a i l i n g gowns, both empire-line and fishtail, in hues of green and gold, along with black and silver e v eningwe a r. McQueen’s intended mess age wa s to condemn bigotry, epitomized so d r ama ti c a l l y by the unjust k i l l i n g of his ancestor El iz a b et h How. But instead, he wa s yet a g a i n a c cused of hating women, with Women’s Wear Daily going so f a r as to c a l l the show “a study in vitriol expressed via fashion”. In her book Ale xander McQueen: Fashion Visionary , Judith Watt defended McQueen: “Not so, this wa s a response to the outrage of what had happened to innocent women, not the corrosive vision of a poisoned mind.” L A DAME BLEUE (S/S 2008) McQueen’s S/S 2008 show c ame less t h a n six months a fter the tr agi c suicide of Is abell a Blow, patron, muse and, above a ll, O P P O S I T E E v e r y d etail was care fully thought-out and meticulously c r a ft e d by Mc Q u e e n . The c r y s t a l- e m b e l l is h e d motif on the leather corset e c h o e s the bird claw hanging from a chain on the mod el’s orb bag. The fur trim allud es to the hunt.
OceanofPDF.com 108 BACK I N L O N D O N friend to McQueen. The show wa s a tribute to Blow in a l l her eccentricity, espe c i a ll y celebrating her love of his most exuberant outfits. Ironically, given McQueen’s own suicide just a few ye a rs later, he seemed phlegmatic at the time, telling W ma g a zi n e in his first inter view since her death: “I learned a lot from her death, I learned a lot about myself … that life is worth living. Be c ause I’m just fighting a g a i n st it, fighting a g a i n st the establishment. She loved fashion, and I love fashion, and I wa s just in denial.” Like McQueen, Is abell a Blow loved birds and nature and they had a mutual passion for falconry. The collection reflected this with feathers, both printed and delicately painted as pa rt of a mask, and bird and butterfly motifs, including j oy ful rainbowcoloured tropical birds of pa r adise. Blow wa s a lso a lifetime devotee of Philip Treacy’s hats and one of the few people who got away with we a ring some of his most outrageous designs. The milliner outdid himself with his own homage to the late st y list by creating an e x tr a v a g a n z a of headpieces, including a flock of red butterflies made from feathers and twiste d dr agonflies perched on the front of a model’s head. The show a lso showcased variations on many of McQueen’s greatest achievements from previous collections, hi ghli ghting his impeccable Savile Row t a iloring and moulded-dress silhouette. It seemed that McQueen wa s pushing through his grief and cementing a l l that made him a great fashion designer. Vogue’ s show review summed it up: “In a ll, McQueen honored his mentor by striving to bring out the best in himself.” T H E GIR L WHO L I V E D IN T H E T R E E ( A / W 2008) After Isabella’s Blow’s funer a l and the suc c ess of La Dame Bleue, McQueen and his long-time collaborator, jeweller y designer Shaun Le ane, travelled to India for a month, a trip he later c a l le d a “pilgrimage”. McQueen returned not only as O P P O S I T E La Dame Bleue was McQueen’s tribute to the late Is a b e l l a Blow. It celebrated her love of bold o u tfits, nat ure and their shared pa ssion, birds. Th is jubilant ra inbow- coloured pleated ch iffon dre ss, mod e ll ed on a bird of pa r adis e , e x p l o d e s around the ne c k line into a halo of fe a the rs.
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com 110 BACK I N L O N D O N
OceanofPDF.com BACK I N L O N D O N 111 a converted Buddhist but a lso with a new appreciation of the a estheti c s of the British Empire and grand days of the Raj. This was reflected in his next collection by gold-edged regimentalstyle jackets and ermine-trimmed re g a l gowns. The dress silhouettes a lso echoed the grand days of British haute couture, in p a rti c u l a r the work of Hardy Amies and Norman Ha rtnell, both favourites of the young Queen El iz a b et h II. The title of the show c ame to McQueen as he contemplated a 600-year-old elm tree in his Sussex garden, ima g i n i n g a girl he described as a “fer a l creature” who lived within it. He elaborated prior to the show: “I made up this story of a girl who lives in it and comes out of the d a r kness to meet a prince and become a queen.” And so, the re g a l collection presented a series of exquisite dresses with tightly fitted bodi c es and net-stiffened ba llerina s k irts – W ma g a zi n e c a l le d them “Victorian Goth ba llerina s” – covered in Swarovski c r y st a ls or intricately woven with lace. It wa s an unusua ll y feminine collection and, perhaps coincidentally, it wa s a lso the first time that the McQueen label st a rted turning a profit. N A T U R A L DIS-TINCTION, U N - N AT U R A L SELECTION (S/S 2009) For a l l his strong opinions, Ale x ander McQueen would not normally have been pegged as an environmental a c ti v ist and yet, in his S/S 2009 show, that was the mess age that he sent. The show followed the journey from Darwin’s evolution through the Industri a l Revolution, to fina ll y condemn humanity's de v a st a ting effect on the na t u r a l world. The set featured a metal globe, onto which was projected a revolving Ea rth, Sun and Moon, and the edges of the c a twa l k were lined with examples of Victorian taxidermy to represent endangered species such the elephant, giraffe, polar bear and lion. O P P O S I T E In hon our of the title of McQueen’s show, The Girl Who Lived in the Tree, Ph ilip Treacy created one of his e x t r a o r d i n a r y s culpt ura l h e a d p i e c e s. The c r y s t a l-l a d e n tree is set off by an a n d r o g y n o u s E l iz a b e t h a n -s t y l e blac k gown.
OceanofPDF.com 112 BACK I N L O N D O N The clothes themselves were initi a ll y representative of the purity of the na t u r a l world before humans interfered. Na tur a l fibres, delicate chiffon s h ift dresses with flowers trapped in a translucent mesh were juxt aposed with a series of tailored frock coats, slim trousers and dresses made from fabric printed with the shapes of wood. Later in the collection the atmosphere darkened. The shapes and patterns of the clothes were now made from either black or u n n a t u r a l l y coloured synthetic fabrics, and be c ame harsher, evoking industri a l shapes and buildings. The use of Swarovski c r y st a ls wasn’t glamorous here but overly bright and unyielding, in marked contrast to the softness of the na t u r a l world. In the show notes, which featured the imag e of McQueen’s face morphing into a human skull, the designer wrote: “We’re in danger of k i l l i n g the planet through greed.” T H E HORN OF P L E N T Y (A/ W 2009) This wa s the l a st f u l l A / W collection McQueen would design before he died by suicide in 2010. With hindsight, the disillusionment he felt with the fashion industr y was clear. The show, dedicated to his mother, wa s intended as a comment on the inherently disposable nature of fashion. It wa s a prescient attitude, expressed sever a l ye a rs before the b a c k l a s h a g a i n st f a st fashion be c ame such a v o c a l ize d topic. As he told the New York Times before the show: “This whole situation is such a cliché. The turnover of fashion is just so quick and so throwaway, and I t h i n k that is a big pa rt of the problem. There is no longevity.” The atmosphere was one of despa ir and destruction. The runway wa s made of shattered mirrors and a giant tip wa s filled with dis c a rded household rubbish, as well as props from sever a l of his own past shows. Sartorially, it wa s both O P P O S I T E Mc Q u e e n always sent a me ss a g e with his col l e c tions, and in later years this b e c a m e a bout e nv ironme n t a l prot e c tion. Th is brig ht yellow minidress from Na t ura l DisT i n c ti o n , Un -Na t u r a l S e l e c ti o n (S/S 2009) is e n c r u st e d with t h r e e - d ime n si o n a l s e q u i n n e d flowers and d elicate a p p l i q u é d daisies on a mesh body with a zip d etail on the fore a rms.
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com 114 BACK I N L O N D O N L E F T Mc Q u e e n b e c a m e inc reasingly disillusioned with the fa sh ion i n d u s tr y and his A / W 2 009 show The Ho r n of P l e n t y c riti c ized the fast-fash ion mentality. Mo d e ls with pale faces and h y p e rs e x u a l , oversized red lips wore o u tfits that mocked the fa sh ion g re a ts, including Christi an Dior and Coco Cha n e l , who were ren owned for their twe e d s and blac k and white houndstooth c h e c k s.
OceanofPDF.com BACK I N L O N D O N 115 a retrospective of McQueen’s own work over the previous 15 ye a rs and a tongue-in-cheek comment on the le g enda r y fashion designers of the past. White-f a c ed models with ghoulish, oversized red lips, Lei gh Bowery-style, paraded in houndstooth and tweed, pa rodying the neat suits of Chanel and Dior’s iconic New Look dresses. Their headpieces were created from debris, such as a luminium c a n s wrapped in plastic, and p a rts of other outfits were made from bin bags. McQueen was clearly not wi l l i n g to throw e v er y t h i n g away just yet, and the collection a lso included a run-through of his greatest hits, ma k i n g sure that it had a commercial chanc e despite the designer’s c yni c ism about the state of fashion. It is interesting to note that the name The Horn of Plenty referenced the pub in which Jack the Ripper’s l a st victim, Ma r y Jane Kelly, wa s sighted, a neat way of t a k i n g the collection f u l l circle back to McQueen’s first ever show. PLATO’S AT L A N T I S (S/S 2010) McQueen’s fina l c a t w a l k show foreshadowed the uber-tech world of fashion live-stre aming that would become the norm in the ye a rs a fter his death. Those who were lucky enough to be in attendance were treated to one of McQueen’s greatest collections, set in the my t h i c a l underwater world of Atl antis. The inspiration was the story told by the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato of the utopian island that s ank into the sea, which McQueen saw as ana logous to our own destruction of the planet. The Savage Beauty exhibition explained how McQueen envisioned the Atl antis my th as an apoc a l ypti c future for humank ind, in which Darwin’s theor y of evolution happened in reverse: “The ice cap would melt, the waters would rise and life on e a r t h would have to evolve in order to live beneath sea
OceanofPDF.com 116 BACK I N L O N D O N once more or perish. Humanity would go back to the place from whence it came.” For his collection this tr ansl a ted into a series of minidresses fe a turing di g it a ll y engineered three-dimensional prints of sea creatures, in shades of aqua, green and brown. They were worn by other-worldly models with ha ir moulded into finlike shapes and with make-up that made them appear reptili an. The fina l touch c ame from McQueen’s towering “Armadillo” boots. As S a r a h Mower phr a sed it, “It looked as if McQueen wa s env is aging a biological hybridization of women with sea mammals.” McQueen offered his audience a t a ste of the future in both the technological st a g ing of the show and the collection itself. But more t h a n that, the t a x i driver’s son from the Ea st End proved himself to be a philosopher as well as a fashion designer, which made his sudden and untimely death a l l the more tr a g i c . ANGELS A N D DEMONS (A/ W 2010) On 11 Februa r y 2010, the day before his beloved mother Joyce’s funer a l, Ale x ander Lee McQueen took his own life. An inquest later found that he “ k i l le d himself while the ba l anc e of his mind wa s disturbed”. The Gucci Group immediately confirmed that they would still support the label and that the scheduled A / W 2010 show on which McQueen had been working would go ahe ad. Under the guidanc e of S a r a h Burton, McQueen’s head of womenswear for over a decade, the 16 pieces that he had planned were completed and shown to a small, private audience. Unlike Plato’s Atl antis, which wa s a portr a y a l of a cataclysmic future, this collection looked back to the past, both at McQueen’s previous collections and at the religious O P P O S I T E McQueen’s final c a twa l k show was inspired by Plato’s my t h i c a l u n d e rwa t e r c it y of Atlantis. The mo d e ls’ hair – mould ed into fin-like sha p e s – and amph ibi an make-up were intend ed to show Darwin’s evolution in reverse in a my t h i c a l c it y where humans re t urned to the s e a .
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com 118 BACK I N L O N D O N
OceanofPDF.com BACK I N L O N D O N 119 O P P O S I T E McQueen’s p o st h umo u s coll e c tion consisted of just 16 o u tfits, finished by S a r a h B u rt o n . He had re t urned to e a rli e r t h e m e s, including the medieval era and religious icon ography, and had renewed his empha sis on meticulous tailoring. Th is regal blac k and gold coat dress and c ape is lavishly embroid e red with heraldi c motifs. L E F T Lee Al e x a n d e r Mc Q u e e n died on 11 F e b r u a r y 2010. During London Fash ion Week just days later, a memo ri a l wall illustrated how much the d esigner had meant to so many peo pl e . iconography of the medie va l period which had long inspired him. Sadly, McQueen had appeared to be going back to his t a iloring and couture basics, to rebuild a fashion label of which he could be trul y proud. As Burton told Vogue : “He wanted to get back to the h and c r a ft he loved, and the t h i n g s that are being lost in the ma k i n g of fashion. He was looking at the a rt of the Dark Ag es, but finding light and beauty in it. He wa s coming in ever y day, draping and cutting pieces on the stand.” The collection wa s a poignant one, not only be c ause of its melancholy, historic tones, but a lso for the jolt that a reincarnation of an outfit from his first gold-winged show for Givenchy gave the audience. It wa s a reminder both of the vision that McQueen had possessed and of the si n g u l a r talent that the fashion world had lost.
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com COLLABORATORS AND MUSES
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S 123 “He was like an artist presenting a dream, a story, a performance.” K A T Y E N G L A N D C O L L A B O R AT O R S Simon Ungless When he was a new student at Centr a l Saint Ma rti n s, McQueen befriended Simon Ungless, a textile designer with whom he formed a creative partnership. Ungless wa s the son of a gamekeeper and shared McQueen’s passion for nature, birds and colle c ting t a c tile curiosities. Ungless was McQueen’s first major collaborator and designed many of his iconic early prints – for example, the t y retrack and swa llow patterns in The Birds. He a lso contributed signifi c antly to McQueen’s l andma rk Dante show, famously using – unfortuna tely without permission, which meant the O P P O S I T E Simon Ungless created some of the most recogniz a ble of McQueen’s early p ri n ts. Th is graph i c blac k thorn print from The Hunger (S/S 1996) is a t y p i c a l e x ampl e of his d elicate int e rpre t a tion of nat ure. A DR E AM TEAM
OceanofPDF.com 124 C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S clothes later had to be destroyed – Don McCullin’s Vietnam War ima g es to screen-print onto fabric. Ungless moved to Ca liforni a in 1996, but he re c a lled his pa rt in McQueen’s early designs to Marin Living ma g a zi n e in 2021: “I believe the Dante collection took McQueen to a new level of design and I’m still very proud to have been pa rt of it. I have one secret piece from the collection; it trul y is my most valued possession.” I sabella Blow Is abell a Blow was McQueen’s mentor, patron and muse. They had an a lmost f a m i l i a l relationship, which wa s both extremely close but somewhat volatile. As McQueen’s sister Janet explained it in an inter view with Lauren Mi l l i g a n in 2015: “I a lways put Is abell a between my mum and his sisters. She was sort of in the middle, a peg down from Mum.” The eccentric st y list, who, according to the Daily Mail , McQueen once described as “a cross between a Billingsga te fishwife and Lucrezia Borgia”, spotted the designer at his Centr a l Saint Ma rti n s degree show. She famously paid £5,000 for the entire collection. Though McQueen wa s initi a ll y s c epti c a l about Blow and found it hard to relate to her upper-class background and flamboyant behaviour, she clearly had an unerring eye for spotting genius. As An n a Wintour once said: “When Issie told me to go and see somebody, or to t a k e somebody seriously, I a lways did.” Over the early ye a rs of his career, Blow had a great de a l of influence over McQueen both soc i a lly and stylisti cally. McQueen used her Chelsea house as a studio and her countr y home as a location for fashion editorials. Blow a lso wa l k e d in his 1994 show Banshee, famously appe a ring with the word “McQueen” stencilled in silver onto her head.
OceanofPDF.com C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S 125 L E F T Is a b e l l a Blow was i n s tr u m e n t a l in l aunch ing McQueen’s career, wh ich began when she boug ht his graduate col l e c tion. She was his muse, patron and b i g g e st cheerlead er, e spe c i a lly in the early days. Blow is pi c t ured here in t y p i c a l l y ec centri c dress with Mc Q u e e n in 2003. In an inter view with The Cu t , milliner Philip Treacy remembers her indefatigable belief in McQueen: “Isabella was his defender. It’s e a s y for ever ybody to love him now, but she was cheerleading him for ye a rs and ye a rs and years.” When McQueen accepted his role at Givenchy, their relationship be c ame more str a ined. Blow believed she had pulled string s to get him the position and a ssumed she would be offered a paid role alongside him at the grand fashion house, but she was not.
OceanofPDF.com 126 C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S Her husband Detma r later criticized McQueen in his biography of his late wife, Blow by Blow (2010): “I did put the boot into Alexander. I t h i n k he bloody well deser ved it. He let Issie down. There’s no two ways about it.” Although the pa ir d rifte d apa rt in later ye a rs, p a rtl y as a result of Blow’s ongoing mental health issues and frequent suicide attempts, her death in 2007 inevitably a ffe c ted McQueen, and he dedicated his S/S 2008 show La Dame Bleue to her memory. In September 2009 he told the New York Times: “She would say that fashion k il led her, but she a lso allowed that to happen in a lot of ways. She got herself some good jobs and she let some R I G H T Ph ilip Treacy had be en as close to Is a b e l l a Blow as Mc Q u e e n had, and felt similarly moved to pay tribute to the late s t y l is t in the form of a feathered headpiece mad e to look like a flock of red b u tt e r f l i e s.
OceanofPDF.com C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S 127 of them go. You could sit Is abell a down and tell her what she should do with her life. But she would never understand that a l l it c ame down to [was], ‘You just are, Is abell a . And that is your commodity.’” K a t y En g l a n d Another st y list who had a simil a rly big impact on McQueen’s aesthetic wa s Ka t y Engl and. McQueen first spotted her we a ring a nurse’s uniform and was intrigued, so when he later bumped into her in a Soho trimmi n g s store, he invited her to chat. Engl and re c a lled to the Guardian in 2013: “He c ame over and said: ‘Are you Ka t y Engl and? Do you want to go for a cup of tea?’”They immediately hit it off. Engl and said in a 2015 inter view with SHOWstudio.com: “I wa s inst antly a ttr a c ted to him; he wa s a re a ll y cha risma ti c guy.” She agreed to style his third c a t w a l k show, The Birds, coming up with the brilliant idea to roll a muddied t y re over models’ naked skin to resemble c a r tr a c k s. This wi l l i n g n ess to experiment led to some controversial press, but as she later explained: “We didn’t re a ll y c a re. It wa s an ama zi n g feeling … I c a n remember re a l negativity around him, being too aggressive. He did grow up, of course – those were the early days. As the ye a rs went by, he softened.” McQueen had strong opinions about the concept of bodily perfection within the fashion world, and he and Engl and were pioneers in bre a k ing boundaries around discrimination. McQueen guest-edited the forty-sixth issue of Daz ed & Confused ma g a zi n e in 1998, which wa s styled by Engl and. It focused on dis ability and included an editorial story fe a turing the double amputee model Aimee Mullins we a ring prosthetics. Shot by photographer Nick Kni ght, with whom McQueen a lso collaborated on many occasions, it wa s an early cha llenge to
OceanofPDF.com the ableism that was then endemic in the world of high fashion. McQueen went on to use Mullins in sever a l of his c a t w a l k shows, most notably his No. 13 collection, which featured the model we a ring a pa ir of intricately c a r v e d wooden legs. Ac ting variously as st y list, muse and fit model, Engl and wa s a major collaborator of McQueen’s for more t h a n a decade and was instrument a l in bringing to life many of his most dr ama ti c c a t w a l k shows. Simon C o s t i n McQueen depended on the a rtist Simon Costin, who had tr a ined as a theatre designer, to both source and design props, and a rt dire c t his increasingly ambitious shows. Like McQueen, Costin wa s deeply interested in the more macabre a spe c ts of history. In the 1980s he had designed shocking pieces, such as his “Incubus” ne ckl a c e, which included v i a ls of human semen and was inspired by nineteenth-centur y collectors. As Costin admitted to i-D ma g a zi n e in 2014, “I am quite dark … which is why I t h i n k I worked with Ale x ander McQueen so well.” Costin wa s a lso simil a r to McQueen in that he was an uninhibited visionary, telling the Financial Times in 2015: “I like st o r y tel ling and magi c , I like to create a whole world.” Like most of McQueen’s collaborators, Costin wa s a lso a good friend, and fellow clubber, before the pa ir worked together for the first time on The Birds. Costin a lso worked on the notorious Hi ghl and Ra p e show, and for Dante he made bird claw jeweller y and a widow’s pe a k headdress in black jet. When designing McQueen’s shows, Costin described the process as “very organic”. Costin’s creativeness allowed him to re a l ize McQueen’s f ant a sies using a r ange of imagina ti ve techniques and props, often on a tight budget, and he reminis c ed in the same inter view about how “cobbled together it was”. 128 C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S
OceanofPDF.com L E F T Th is piece by Shaun Leane was created from interlinked and bejewelled metal plates. It was originally d esigned as a t y p e of y a shma k for The Eye in 2 0 0 0 , but was reworked later as a mask and bre a stpl a t e for McQueen’s A / W 20 0 9 col l e c tion, The Ho r n of Plenty. One of Costin’s final, but most memorable, creations wa s for McQueen’s S/S 1998 show, Untitled. It featured a runway of Perspex water t a n k s , the liquid in them initi a ll y clear until the audience watched, mesmerized, as black ink seeped into the water, turning it d a r k l y opaque, in a yin-yang moment h a l fwa y through the show. Shaun Leane Shaun Le ane be g an his apprenticeship as a jeweller in London’s Hatton Garden at the age of 16, just as McQueen had done on Savile Row. He first worked with McQueen on the Hi ghl and Rape collection and, over their 17-year collaboration, Le ane
OceanofPDF.com 130 C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S created not only pieces of jeweller y but a lso whole moulded garments for McQueen. He is quoted by the Victoria and Albert Museum e xpl a ining how much McQueen pushed him: “Lee took me out of the zone of ma k i n g jeweller y that ha s to be e a rri n g s or ne c k l a c es or bracelets or ti a r a s, to a c t u a l l y creating pieces from a met a l form that be c ame pa rt of the garment. Or be c ame the garments themselves.” Leane’s most notable work included the religion-inspired “Crown of Thorns” headpiece he created for Dante, tribal-style pieces modelled on ringed ne c k l a c es, and sever a l coiled corsets B E LOW A headpiece of flying p l a n e s by Ph ilip Treacy for McQueen’s Widows of Cullod en col l e c tion.
OceanofPDF.com C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S 131 such as the one for The Overlook, the label’s A / W 1999 collection, on which he reportedly worked 16 hours a day for 10 weeks. Ph i l i p Treacy In tandem with the jeweller y of Shaun Le ane, Philip Treacy’s he addresses were essenti a l in elevating McQueen’s outfits to new levels of wonder. Described by Vogue as “perhaps the greatest living milliner”, Treacy wa s another protégé of Is abell a Blow, who had invited him to make a hat for her wedding in 1999. It wa s the first in a long line of Treacy’s wonderfully eccentric creations to gr a c e Blow’s head. Despite the fact that the impact of McQueen’s outfits often relied heavily on Treacy’s dr ama ti c headpieces, the designer didn’t brief him directly, instead using st y list Ka t y Engl and as an intermediary. As he explained to Hero ma g a zi n e in 2021: “[Katy] wa s the mood-board … his idea of a brief wa s something you’ve never seen before, which of course wa s never easy, but we like that kind of a cha llenge. He was interested in originality, and so am I. With McQueen, he wouldn’t see the hats until about an hour before the show … Ba si c a l l y if he didn’t like it at that point, I was fucked! ” But Treacy’s level of imagina ti ve genius and te chni c a l s k i l l didn’t disappoint. His most iconic creations included many permutations on the theme of stuffed birds and feathers, such as a whole bird’s nest of c r y st a l-studded turquoise e g g s complete with falcon wing s, as well as horns and other references from the a n i m a l kingdom. More s culptur a l pieces were the intricate “Chinese Garden” for It’s Only a Game (S/S 2005); a moulded, wimple-like white hat for The Horn of Plenty; and, of course, the triumphant explosion of red feather butterflies from Treacy and McQueen’s tribute show to Is abell a Blow, La Dame Bleue.
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S 133 R I G H T David Bowie photog r aphed in 2 0 0 0 wearing a printed silk coat by Al e x a n d e r Mc Q u e e n . O P P O S I T E S a r a h J e ssi c a Parker wearing c lassi c Mc Q u e e n to the Anglomani a ball at the Me tro p o l it a n Mus eum of A rt in 2 0 0 6 . She s p o r ts a pleated b a l l e ri n a - st y l e net dress with blac k lace appl iqué , to pped by a o n e - should er clan t a rt a n over-gown secured at the waist by a narrow belt. She wears a bejewelled Scottish th istle pin on her should er.
OceanofPDF.com 134 C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S MUSES Ale x ander McQueen was London’s most talented and cha risma ti c designer and, perhaps t h a n k s to his “bad boy” image, caught the attention of a number of socialites and celebrities. Along with Is abell a Blow, sever a l other upper-class women be c ame friends and muses of the designer, most notably Annabelle Neilson and Daphne Guinness. An n abe ll e Neilson Annabelle Neilson wa s introduced to McQueen by Blow in 1993 and quickly be c ame a close friend, a ll y and muse of the designer, st aying in his home and frequently appe a ring on the c a t w a l k in his creations. Neilson c a l le d him her “soulmate”, e xpl a ining : “However odd we may have been to those who looked at us – we worked. Ea st End gay boy meets skinny English posh bird with a naughty streak.” McQueen often designed using Nielson as a model, sketching and even cutting garments while they were on still her body, which could be a nerve-racking experience: “I never quite felt comfortable with the way he would cut clothes with me in them, the scissors a skin cell away from a permanent scar.” Neilson inspired many of his iconic collections, including Joan, which he dedicated to her, and The Girl Who Lived in the Tree, which was p a rtl y inspired by a f a ir y -t a le-li k e story Neilson wrote. Daphne G u i n n e s s Daphne Guinness, heir to the Irish brewery fortune and granddaughter of Diana Mitford, was another aristocratic socialite who counted McQueen as one of her close friends. Like Is abell a Blow, she wore McQueen’s clothes as often as possible and her elfin figure and s culptur a l looks set off his baroque creations to perfection. O P P O S I T E Socialite Daphne Gu i n n e ss, McQueen’s fri end and muse, a tt ending the o pening of the Mc Q u e e n re trospe c ti ve , Savage Beauty , at the Me tro p o l it a n Mus eum of A rt in 2011. She is wearing a swanlike, white feathered ball gown from the Mc Q u e e n Spring 2011 c o l l e c ti o n .
OceanofPDF.com C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S 135
OceanofPDF.com 136 C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S However, they nearly didn’t meet. Guinness, though she admired McQueen’s work, hated the idea of becoming one of his groupies. She told W ma g a zi n e that it wa s McQueen who made the first move: “One day, he saw me wa l k i n g across the street in his kimono and he r an up to me and said, ‘I’m the person you don't want to meet!’ We went to a pub and hit it off. Of course a fter that I wa s so irritated not to have known him before!" L E F T L a d y Gaga, pi c t ured accepting a Bambi Award in 2011, wearing a gown from the Al e x a n d e r Mc Q u e e n S/S 2012 col l e c tion. The heavily be ad ed cutaway gold bodice e x t e n d s into a skull cap and is offs e t by a fishtail s k irt mad e from a cloud of r u c h e d and pleated ch iffon.
OceanofPDF.com C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S 137 Lady Ga g a Lady Ga g a wa s a lso a huge f an of McQueen’s designs, which suited her outlandish aesthetic perfectly. Aside from Daphne Guinness she wa s one of the few who happily wore his 7-inch Arma d i l l o shoes and, in the ye a rs before his death, the singer had become an unofficial muse to the designer. She even dedicated the song ‘Fashion of His Love’, on her 2011 album, Born This Way , to McQueen. Lady Ga g a rema ins a big f an of the Ale x ander McQueen label to this day. Supermodels Various supermodels, such as Stella Tennant – another Is abell a Blow dis cover y – be c ame favourites of McQueen, although many were not well known when they st a rted wa l k i n g for him. Gisele Bündchen made her international debut in McQueen’s S/S 1998 show, although she nearly refused, as she was asked to appear topless. It wa s only the intervention of a resour c eful make-up a rtist, who painted an opaque white top onto her body, that encouraged her to go on. Perhaps the one supermodel who could trul y be c a l le d a muse to McQueen is Kate Moss. Moss wa s a lso a close friend of the designer and a re g u l a r in his early shows. But her most memorable appe a r anc e, as an ethere a l hologram, wa s for the finale of Widows of Culloden, his A / W 2006 show. As a tribute to McQueen a fter his death, Moss appeared on the cover of the May 2011 issue of Harper’s Ba z a a r modelling the very same dress, telling the Daily Mail : “He wa s a dea r friend of mine … There wa s so much tension, but we had the best l aughs. I miss him terribly. He gave women power, while letting them be fr a g ile and vulnerable at the same time.”
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com C O L L A B O R A T O R S A N D M U S E S 139 R I G H T Kate Moss was a fri end and muse of Al e x a n d e r Mc Q u e e n since her d ebut at the New York showing of his 1 9 9 6 Dante Col l e c tion. She wore his iconic bumster trous e rs and a top with Don McCullin’s war photo of an eld erly Vi e t n a m e s e man. O P P O S I T E Mod e l Naomi Ca m p b e l l was a long-time fri end to Al e x a n d e r Mc Q u e e n who a ls o b e c a m e involved with his cha rit a bl e S a r a b a n d e Foundation after his d eath. She is pi c t ured here on a rare ret urn to the c a twa l k for S a r a h Burton’s S/S 2022 show.
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com SARAH BURTON: BEYOND M C QUEEN
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com S A R A H B U R T O N : B E Y O N D M c Q U E E N 143 “ He was so inspiring. He was very kind to me. He was like a big brother. I was very shy, came from a very different background, but because Lee believed in me, it made me believe in myself. ” S A R A H BURTON S a r a h Burton first arrived at Ale x ander McQueen in 1996 for a work placement as pa rt of her degree at Centr a l Saint Ma rti n s. She returned to McQueen str a ight a fter gr adua ting, and in 2000 wa s made head of womenswear. She wa s, in ever y way, his right-hand woman. S a r a h Mower described Burton’s role when she inter viewed the designer for Vogue in 2018: “Burton be c ame the person who assisted him in conjuring up any seemingly impossible creative solution.” Burton agreed: “I wa s a pill a r; my job wa s to make t h i n g s happen.” It wa s inevitable that when McQueen died suddenly in 2010, Burton would t a k e over the reins. Her most pressing t a sk was to finish his collection Ang els and Demons, which she did with O P P O S I T E S a r a h B u rt o n , in an elegant, Gr e c i a n -s t y l e gown, attends the o pening of Al e x a n d e r McQu e e n : Savage B e a u t y at the Cost ume Instit ute Gala at the Me tro p o l it a n Mus eum of A rt in May 2011. KEEPING M C QUEEN'S LEGACY ALI V E
OceanofPDF.com 144 S A R A H B U R T O N : B E Y O N D M c Q U E E N the utmost sensitivity and s k i l l . She executed it perfe c tly and explained to audiences that McQueen’s intention with this collection wa s to return to the bare bones of his c r a ft. It wa s a sma ll and poignant presentation, a llowing the fashion world to reflect on the pa ssing of a si n g u l a r talent. But the show had to go on, and Burton’s impeccable stewa rdship of the Ale x ander McQueen label wa s widely acknowledged when she presented her first solo collection six months later. A s Vogue commented: “ Sa r a h Burton is precisely the kind of quiet powerhouse who ha s what it t a k es to grab hold of his lega cy and dr a g it where it needs to go to sur v i v e and prosper.” McQueen had left behind so many of his creative ideas – a l l well known to Burton, who had worked so closely alongside him – that her collection wa s c ert a i n l y equa l to one he might have designed. The one difference wa s in the st a g ing of the show, which was less dark and the a tri c a l t h a n before. There were a lre ady murmurings that Burton would bring a softer, more feminine touch to the sometimes aggressive McQueen rhetoric. Burton seems a less troubled cha r a c ter t h a n McQueen wa s, or perhaps just a more private one, and as such ha s used fewer autobiographical themes in her collections. As Hamish Bowles, global editor of Vogue , put it in 2017: “Where McQueen drew on history and techno l o gy to explore his inner demons and reflect his o ften disquieting vision of a dystopian wo rl d , Burton uses those same themes and resources to celebrate her passion for traditions and craftsmanship, and the ways they can be harnessed to flatter a woman.” One area of inspiration which Burton ha s in common with her late mentor is the na t u r a l world, and she initi a ll y looked O P P O S I T E Kate Middleton wearing an Al e x a n d e r Mc Q u e e n wedding gown d esigned by S a r a h B u rt o n for her ma rri a g e to Prince William in Apri l 2011. The i v o r y silk tulle dress was covered in h a n dma d e lace appl iqué and hand- cut lace flowers tr aditiona l to the British Isles, such as roses, th istle, d a ffo d i ls and s h a m r o c k s. The bodice, wh ich was inspired by Vi c t o ri a n cors e tr y, a long time signat ure of Mc Q u e e n , was mad e from Chantilly lace. The dress was completed by a t w o - metre-long tr a in.
OceanofPDF.com S A R A H B U R T O N : B E Y O N D M Q U E E N 145
OceanofPDF.com
OceanofPDF.com S A R A H B U R T O N : B E Y O N D M c Q U E E N 147 to the English countr yside of her youth to heal the loss of McQueen. Her debut collection included a dress covered in the wing s of monarch butterflies, and gowns fe a turing s t a l k s of corn and pheasant feathers – a l l in the rich colours and eighteenth-century silhouettes to which McQueen himself wa s so drawn. Notably, the c r a ftsma n s h i p was as impeccable as a n y t h i n g McQueen himself had sent down the c a t w a l k . Burton ha s kept McQueen’s trusted team, led by head atelier Judy Ha lil, who ha s been with the brand since 1997, and still uses Russi an fit model Polina Ka si n a . She works collaboratively with her design te am to spark ideas that eventua lly coa les c e into a story that wi l l become a collection. Her creative process is as organic as McQueen’s was. Burton’s collections over the decade she ha s been creative director at McQueen have very much kept to the label’s heritage, with plenty of histori c a l references, na t u r a l elements and exquisite tailoring. She ha s even known when to add a little d a r kness – for example, a series of black leather and ma sked models bre a k ing up her romantic, feminine chiffon dresses for S/S 2012. As Tim Bl a n k s pointed out in his show review for Vogue : “This collection proved how hot-wired into the core of McQueen Burton trul y is … She’ll never es c ape him; nor, it seems, does she want to.” Burton ha s continued to epitomize the spirit of McQueen, but her ideas have become more her own. For example, an aesthetic riff on a beekeeper, complete with modernist veils, for S/S 2013, was something bold and new. Wh i le still focusing on McQueen’s signature Victorian and Edwa rd i a n shapes, her own designs have become more romantic, noticeably since S/S 2016, a be autifull y light and feminine collection inspired by the seventeenth-century Huguenot silk weavers of Spitalfields. McQueen would have O P P O S I T E S a r a h Burton’s S/S 2017 coll e c tion for Al e x a n d e r Mc Q u e e n took its inspir a tion from the She tl and Isl ands and was reminis cent of McQueen’s own preoc cupa tion with Scotl and. Th is s e m icorseted, d o u b l e - layer red and blac k silk or g a n z a dress is a p p l i q u é d with wild flowers. Its d e l i c a c y c o n tr a s ts with the wid e belt, st udd ed and trimme d with b e l ls, and high b o o ts wh ich have an a r m o u r e d , medieval feel.
OceanofPDF.com 148 S A R A H B U R T O N : B E Y O N D M Q U E E N approved of the reference, as he wa s proud of being descended from these immi g r ants himself. And Burton’s use of the show to make a statement about today’s migrant crisis is just the sort of thing he would have done. If a n y t h i n g , Burton ha s made McQueen’s clothes more accessible and more wearable. She is obsessed with the idea of how women feel in their clothes, and how they express their indi v idua lit y through fashion. And echoing McQueen, who liked to say he designed for women who wanted to be warriors, she even went so f a r as to c a l l her designs for A / W 2018 “a soft armour for women”. Ironically, Burton’s gentler attitude could be likened to that of Hubert de Givenchy, the le g enda r y French couturier whom McQueen memorably dismissed as “irrelevant” when he briefly took up the helm at his fashion house in 1996. Both Burton and Givenchy re cognized the importanc e of how the clothes a woman wore chang ed how she felt and acted. As Burton explained to Vogue in 2017: “For me it’s not just about a show or a review, it’s about dressing women and how a piece ma k es them feel. As soon as you put a McQueen jacket on, you stand differently be c ause it ha s a wa ist and it ha s a shoulder and it ma k es you feel empowered. It’s great if you c a n do that for women.” This attitude ha s won Burton many new f ans, including a host of celebrity clients. In 2011, when she wa s still a relatively unknown designer, Burton hit the he adlines when she wa s commissioned to create an exquisite wedding gown for the now Princess of Wales, then Kate Middleton. The fashion house wa s chosen, the Palace confirmed at the time, “for the beauty of its c r a ftsma n s h i p and its respect for traditional workmanship and the te chni c a l construction of clothing”.
OceanofPDF.com S A R A H B U R T O N : B E Y O N D M c Q U E E N 149 L E F T S a r a h B u rt o n has continued to d emand the h ig hest level of t a i l o ri n g , equal to McQueen’s Savile Row e x p e rtis e . Th is blac k riff on a t uxedo has a pleated taffeta s k irt d etail, sl a shed with o pen l a c ewor k and metal e m b e l l is h m e n t.