ALEXANDER McQUEEN In partnership with Supported by With thanks to ALEXANDER Technology partner = transparent t = Safe area McQUEEN First published by V&A Publishing to accompany the exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in 2015 at = white type the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington London SW7 2RL EDITED BY CLAIRE WILCOX With thanks to © Victoria and Albert Museum, London The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Hardback edition ISBN 9781 85177 827 0 Paperback edition ISBN 9781 85177 859 1 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this 26.09.14_Alexander McQueen_Final publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers. Every effort has been made to seek permission to reproduce those images whose copyright does not reside with the V&A, and we are grateful to the individuals and institutions who have assisted in this task. Any omissions are entirely unintentional, and the details should be addressed to V&A Publishing. Designer: Charlie Smith Design Copy editor: Denny Hemming Origination by DL Imaging Printed in Italy by Conti Tipcolor S.R.L. V&A PUBLISHING CONTENTS FOREWORDS No. 2 No. 4 No. 6 ARTISTRY VISCERA IMAGINATION Nadja Swarovski – 7 Jonathan Akeroyd – 8 PLATO’S ATLANTIS: MUSEUM OF THE MIND – 179 THE SHINING AND CHIC – 261 ANATOMY OF A COLLECTION – 83 Lisa Skogh Alistair O’Neill Martin Roth – 9 Claire Wilcox THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES FASHION-ABLE – 281 GIVENCHY – 105 Jefferson Hack Edwina Ehrman MODELLING MCQUEEN: HARD GRACE – 189 NIGHTMARES AND DREAMS – 285 INTRODUCTION WALKING OUT – 111 Caroline Evans Susanna Brown Helen Persson ARMOURING THE BODY – 203 IN SEARCH OF THE SUBLIME – 15 REFASHIONING JAPAN – 117 Clare Phillips Andrew Bolton Anna Jackson CROWNING GLORY – 211 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EDWARD SCISSORHANDS – 25 NATURE BOY – 123 Oriole Cullen COLLECTIONS – 303 Claire Wilcox Jonathan Faiers Kate Bethune No. 5 No. 1 No. 3 CHRONOLOGY – 327 SPECTACLE A SENSE OF PLACE SENSIBILITY NOTES – 328 SHOW, AND TELL – 221 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY – 335 SU{I}TURE: TAILORING & THE FASHION A GOTHIC MIND – 141 Alexander Fury METROPOLIS – 37 Catherine Spooner ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS – 336 Christopher Breward MAKING–UP – 235 MEMENTO MORI – 159 Janice Miller PICTURE CREDITS – 338 CLAN MACQUEEN – 51 Eleanor Townsend Ghislaine Wood GHOSTS – 243 INDEX – 342 LAYERS OF MEANING – 165 Bill Sherman CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS – 57 Kirstin Kennedy Louise Rytter COUP DE THÉÂTRE – 247 WASTELAND/WONDERLAND – 171 Keith Lodwick DRAWING A LINE – 61 Zoe Whitley Abraham Thomas DANCE – 253 Jane Pritchard THE EARLY YEARS – 69 Susannah Frankel NADJA SWAROVSKI MEMBER OF THE SWAROVSKI EXECUTIVE BOARD Swarovski is honoured to partner the V&A in staging Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, which pays eloquent tribute to Alexander McQueen’s soaring talent and his limitless imagination. Swarovski was founded in 1895, and our history coincides with the birth of haute couture. Our founder Daniel Swarovski travelled to Paris with his precision-cut crystals, and they soon became prized ingredients in the city’s dressmaking ateliers. Daniel and his sons went on to work with couturiers such as Chanel, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. That this tradition of collaboration between Swarovski and couture remains to this day is due to the genius of designers like McQueen, in whose hands our crystals possessed infinite creative potential. He used them as a sculptor would, to create depth and texture; to add drama and colour; and to make his bold and powerful couture pieces come to life on the runway as they caught the light. McQueen was a design hero, who straddled the spheres of fashion and art. And he knew how to create clothes for women that made them feel powerful and feminine at the same time. Over the course of our decade-long collaboration he created a series of breathtaking crystal looks for his shows, pushing the limits of craftsmanship with new materials such as crystal mesh, and inspiring other designers to use Swarovski in their work. We are very proud that some of these wonderful creations are included in this landmark exhibition, which will inspire visitors with the inimitable beauty of McQueen’s artistic vision. 7 JONATHAN MARTIN AKEROYD ROTH CEO, ALEXANDER MCQUEEN DIRECTOR, VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM When Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty was first staged in 2011, Lee Alexander McQueen has left an indelible imprint on the at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, its popularity fashion world as one of the most visionary designers of his took us all by surprise – it proved to be one of the most successful generation. He pushed the boundaries of fashion with the exhibitions in the museum’s history. I am now so very proud garments he crafted and the theatrical catwalk shows that that we have been able to help the V&A bring Savage Beauty to became synonymous with his name. London. It really does feel like a homecoming, and I know that Lee McQueen – a true Londoner – would have loved the idea of McQueen was born, raised and worked in London, and he having his work exhibited at this great museum, in the heart of the saw the city as both his home and the place from which he city that constantly inspired him. drew inspiration. He forged a special relationship with the V&A, and from his days as a student at Central Saint Martins As is often said, Lee was the real thing – a visionary, an artist, he regularly visited the Museum’s rich textiles and fashion a man whose imagination was so inventive and original that he archives and galleries. Now his own astounding creations managed to capture the world’s attention and create a lasting inspire those who follow in his footsteps. Claire Wilcox, editor legacy. Under Lee’s direction, the Alexander McQueen show of this publication, is a longstanding admirer and champion was always the highlight of any fashion week, more a dramatic of McQueen’s work. She invited him to stage two of the performance than a catwalk display. Museum’s pioneering Fashion in Motion catwalk events in 1999 and 2001, and included his designs in the exhibition We are very fortunate in having a comprehensive and largely Radical Fashion (2001). His work has been on display in the complete archive of work that enables us to show original pieces V&A’s Fashion Gallery ever since. by Lee. This is important because it is only through seeing the work that you can really understand his genius – the remarkable It gives me particular pleasure to thank our sponsors, without way he used the materials and tools available to him to create whom this exhibition would not have been possible. The V&A extraordinary garments, quite unlike anything that had been is delighted to work with Swarovski as the lead exhibition seen before. sponsor, a fitting partner given their long-standing collaboration with McQueen. The Museum is also appreciative of the support Ultimately, it is the work that speaks of the unique talent of this from American Express, who first began partnering with ingenious designer. For those of us who were privileged enough Alexander McQueen in 1997. We also gratefully acknowledge to know him and experience his artistry at first hand, it is now a M.A.C Cosmetics and Samsung. privilege to be able to share his brilliance and his legacy with a wider audience. Many thousands of visitors were thrilled by the original staging of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in 2011 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The V&A is honoured to present Alexander McQueen’s remarkable body of work afresh. The exhibition has come home to London thanks to the generosity and vision of many people, including Andrew Bolton, the exhibition’s original curator, Thomas P. Campbell, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jonathan Akeroyd, CEO of Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton and her team, and Sam Gainsbury of Gainsbury and Whiting. Their vision and resolve has enabled the V&A to ensure that this exhibition pays worthy tribute to the inimitable Lee Alexander McQueen. 8 9 Opposite Alexander McQueen, London August 1999 Photographs by Anne Deniau 10 INTRODUCTION IN SEARCH OF THE SUBLIME ANDREW BOLTON ‘Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless’ IMMANUEL KANT, CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON, 1781 I was a curatorial assistant at the Victoria and Albert Museum the crotch. They were, in fact, metal watch fobs, and were in London when I saw my first Alexander McQueen runway actually more subversive than tampons. The chain was threaded presentation. It was the designer’s thirteenth collection, and in between the legs, from the bottom to the crotch. Isabella rallying against superstition he called it simply No.13. The Blow, the famous stylist who was a close friend and mentor collection was inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement, and of McQueen, described at length the personal satisfaction focused on the contrasting opposites of man and machine, craft the chain provided her as she walked. and technology. I had been both an admirer and an advocate of McQueen’s work since his first catwalk show, Nihilism (Spring/ Nothing prepared me, however, for the raw, emotional Summer 1994), when he sent a latex dress covered with locusts intensity and sublime, transcendent beauty of McQueen’s No.13 down the runway, a comment on the cyclical occurrence of collection. The show was held in the Gatliff Warehouse in south- famine in Africa. west London, now luxury apartments.