Art, Fashion, Runway → Losing McQueen
Alexander McQueen's oyster dress, Spring/Summer 2003
2 years ago, I stood on the ground floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and stared endlessly at Alexander McQueen’s “oyster dress”. I must have looked through the glass for almost 20 minutes, as it was my first time being so close to one of the label’s designs. I was mesmerized by the work of art that so nakedly gazed back at me.
The layers of raw cut silk organza so rough and unfinished, was a perfect depiction of the massacre behind the designer’s inspiration – a shipwreck at sea and a consequent landfall in the Amazon. Looking at that one gown gave me the entire image of broken masts and tattered sails amongst debris abandoned in the sea. I remember not being able to wrap my head around McQueen’s ability to find the beauty and light from such an ugly, grotesque mess. The designer’s creativity truly allowed him to produce such amazing pieces like this – wild yet honest and romantic, theatrical yet wearable and sought-after.
It is with this thought that I looked at pictures from his final collection. A small collection of only 16 looks that McQueen himself draped and cut. His inspiration took a cue from the work of 15th-century painters like Heironymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. He captured details of the paintings digitally, had them woven into jacquards and engineered to fit his garments.
It was sheer poetry. McQueen carefully crafted each look to show the heaviness of the old world, from the prints, colour palette and antiques, and directed them towards the new, with the silhouettes, styling and details. The collection also spoke of serenity with its soft colours and angelic references. Of course, the designer’s rebellious side was not forgotten with the bandage-bound heads and feathered Mohawk-looking embellishments.
With his love for extreme and avant-garde, McQueen’s work truly goes beyond fashion and into the realm of art. To have lost him is to have lost a great piece of the fashion industry. R.I.P. Alexander McQueen.
