Alexander McQueen: A Retrospective
The first thing I ever wrote was an article about Alexander McQueen. He, alongside Galliano and Lagerfeld are the three people most responsible for me going into fashion and to be so eager to start a career as a designer. He is a genius (I don’t say “was” because his art makes him live on). His gift, his uncanny talent for finding shapes and colors and textures in the most amazing places, and transforming them into a pure manifestation of the highest expression of fashion, is just irreplaceable.
They say his inspiration was Lady Gaga, or Isabella Blow before her passing away, but the truth is that regardless of whomever was by his side, his tremendous imagination would have still sprouted the designs that put him on top of everyone’s rank. No wonder Gucci bought the label but allowed him to have complete freedom on how he presented his clothing line and different collections.
Surfing around the net I found excellent retrospectives about his work, but I’d rather focus on his latest Spring-Summer 2010 collection, mind-blowing, energetic, pure heart and soul embedded in a futuristic shade. No wonder Lady Gaga showcased his masterpieces in the Bad Romance video.
He showed a silhouette that focused on androgyny, but still let the femininity of curves and legs in. Only someone like him could do so. In the picture below, an amazing dress with impressive shoulders that end in a long vaporous sleeve, rounding a very tight figure around the waist, that then breaks into the hips and ends in short pants. His impressive high shoes, also by his inspiration, complete the compelling look.
The use of fabrics in floral prints for spring is boring. McQueen destroys that image with flowers that fade away in one side of his mini dress, that accentuates the hips and is extremely short (as clothes in the 2010 should be worn). Again, in expressive shoes he completes the golden accents of the flowers.
Another look I loved was the feathered skirt. The lower part of this look is comprised of feathers in whites, wines and blues, that matches (chaotically) with the top of oranges, goldens and yellows. To complete the look, his huge shoes with metallic embeddings make this look a winner. Notice how perfectly it blends, regardless of the mix that in other situations would look (let’s be honest) awful.
I loves the blue hues in this picture. In Gaga’s video, they appear in white when she emerges from a bathtub. Here, he blends them with a mini-dress, topped by a gray bolero with longer than expected sleeves. The accent of the tail in the dress makes this look more centered in the waist and shows longer legs. Believe it or not, this would make a “big” girl look extremely pretty! It hides what it must and it shows what it should.
The exaggerated figures in the next image is just a test of his craftsmanship. Notice the oversized shoulders that again allow us to focus on the waist, from where barely the topmost part of the legs is covered by this incredible mix of purples, whites and blues. The shoes, again, make the look (though it is very hard to walk on them).
My favorite look is the last one. See the oversized elbows (mocking, precisely, the trend of the oversized shoulders). He gets the same effect on the waist, to then convert it in a disproportional hip to very skinny legs. He downplays the silhouette until it reaches the amazing shoes. This is why he was a genius. He made art, not like Ralph Lauren, or Hilfiger, or even Calvin Klein. This man knew how to do it.
RIP. McQueen.
How sad we lost him so soon.