Full Description
Fashion is a big bubble, and sometimes I feel like popping it.' Alexander McQueen, 2009
This definitive publication on Alexander McQueen (1969 - 2010) invites you into the creative mind and world of one of Britain's most brilliant, daring and provocative designers, and the many themes and references that shaped his visionary fashion collections.
Accompanying the V&A's landmark exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, and taking the key themes of the exhibition of tailoring, gothic, primitivism, naturalism and futurism, this comprehensive catalogue features previously unseen material as well as groundbreaking essays and feature spreads by multiple authors and leading fashion commentators. This kaleidoscopic approach explores themes central to the designer's work and his collections, such as the psychology of fashion, natural history, the theatre and spectacle of his shows, and the key creative collaborators during McQueen's lifetime. Alexander McQueen also offers an encyclopaedic survey of McQueen's catwalk collections, illustrated with striking images by leading fashion photographers, and specially commissioned photographs that capture the breath-taking skill of his designs and awesome theatricality of his shows.
Accompanies Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (14 March to 19 July 2015), developed and expanded from the 2011 blockbuster show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Contents
FOREWORDS: Sponsor's Foreword, Nadja Swarovski; Foreword, Jonathan Akeroyd; Director's Foreword, Martin Roth/ INTRODUCTION: In Search of the Sublime, Andrew Bolton; Edward Scissorhands, Claire Wilcox/ No. 1: A SENSE OF PLACE: Su[i]ture: Tailoring and the Fashion Metropolis, Christopher Breward; Clan MacQueen, Ghislaine Wood; Central Saint Martins, Louise Rytter; Drawing a Line, Abraham Thomas; The Early Years, Susannah Frankel/ No.2: ARTISTRY: Plato's Atlantis: Anatomy of a Collection, Claire Wilcox; Givenchy, Edwina Ehrman; Walking Out, Helen Persson; Refashioning Japan, Anna Jackson; Nature Boy, Jonathan Faiers/ No. 3: SENSIBLITY: A Gothic Mind, Catherine Spooner; Memento Mori, Eleanor Townsend; Layers of Meaning, Kirstin Kennedy; Wasteland/Wonderland, Zoe Whitley/ No. 4: VISCERA: Museum of the Mind, Lisa Skogh; The Cabinet of Curiosities; Modelling McQueen: Hard Grace, Caroline Evans; Armouring the Body, Clare Phillips; Crowning Glory, Oriole Cullen/ No. 5: SPECTACLE: Show, and Tell, Alexander Fury; Making-up, Janice Miller; Ghosts, Bill Sherman; Coup de Theatre, Keith Lodwick; Dance, Jane Pritchard/ No. 6: Imagination: The Shining and Chic, Alistair O'Neill; Fashion-able, Jefferson Hack; Nightmares and Dreams, Susanna Brown/ Encyclopedia of Collections: Kate Bethune/ Chronology; Notes; Further Reading; Acknowledgements; Picture Credits; Index
