Designer of the Month: Alexander McQueen

Folks, I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I still haven't had an opportunity to see the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition at the Met yet. If the website and catalogue (with its crazy cool holographic cover) are any indication, this is one pretty extraordinary show. I'm hoping that the long weekend will provide the perfect opportunity to finally go, in which case, I will definitely let you all know how it is. Until then, on with our Designer of the Month.

Alexander McQueen, Dress, No. 13 collection, spring/summer 1999. White cotton muslin spray-painted black and yellow with underskirt of white synthetic tulle. Courtesy of Alexander McQueen and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Alexander McQueen's runway shows always seemed to borrow more from performance art than the typical fashion industry production, and often provoked strong reactions. As McQueen himself noted, "I don't want to do a cocktail party, I'd rather people left my shows and vomited. I prefer extreme reactions."[1] In one notable, early show, from the spring/summer 1999 No. 13 collection, model Shalom Harlow acted as both muse and canvas, as two flanking robots pelted her white dress with paint, as can be seen in the image above.[2] In another, his spring/summer 2001 VOSS collection, the entire show took place inside a mirrored cube, which, when illuminated, looked like a holding cell in a mental institution, with models appearing as patients.[3] As Andrew Bolton explains in his preface to the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty catalogue, "Over and over again, his shows took his audience to the limits of reason, eliciting the hesitancy of perverse pleasure that merged wonder and terror, incredulity and revulsion. For McQueen, the Sublime was the strongest of passions, as it contained the potential for exaltation and transcendence beyond the commonplace."[4]

Alexander McQueen, Ensemble, VOSS collection, spring/summer 2001. Overdress of panels from a nineteenth-century Japanese silk screen; underdress of oyster shells; neckpiece of silver and Tahiti pearls. Neckpiece by Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen, courtesy of Perles de Tahiti. Courtesy of Alexander McQueen and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

For all of these spectacles, McQueen remained insistent throughout his career that the emphasis remain on the garments themselves rather than his own or others' celebrity.[5] For all his theatricality, it was the fashion that was truly important to McQueen. Unlike most designers today, McQueen could cut a garment, single handedly and within minutes, all while crouching on his studio floor.[6] As Susannah Frankel describes of this design process in the Savage Beauty catalogue:

His team - led by Sarah Burton, who had been working quietly in the background since 1996, before which she, too, was a student at Central Saint Martins - formed an intimate circle around him, passing fabric, scissors, chalk, and so forth. The process appeared not unlike an elaborately choreographed dance. Throughout, McQueen, for once, stayed silent. Slicing fabric with extreme dexterity and an intensity of concentration, he then pinned it onto Polina Kasina, his fit model of many years, in an equally deft manner. If a piece turned out to be more complicated, the designer moved around Kasina for hours if necessary, studying and finessing every detail with his own hands.[7]

Alexander McQueen, “Jellyfish” Ensemble from the Plato’s Atlantis collection, spring/summer 2010. Dress, leggings, and “Armadillo” boots embroidered with iridescent enamel paillettes. Photography by Sølve Sundsbø. Courtesy of Alexander McQueen and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

McQueen's final collection, Plato's Atlantis (spring/summer 2010), was seen by many as the pinnacle of his career.[8] Envisioning a future in which the polar ice cap would melt, bringing climate change and the potential hybridization of humans and sea creatures, it featured the now iconic "Armadillo" boots - enormous 12-inch hoof-like, scaly platforms.[9] As Sarah Burton remarked of this collection:

I think with Plato’s Atlantis, it was real perfection the way he executed every single piece. But knowing Lee, he would have probably gone somewhere completely different after Angels and Demons. He would always surprise you, and that was the joy of working with him, is he would always take it somewhere that was unexpected.

Every time he would take up a different theme or a different angle or a different technique and he would always push it forward, like, relentlessly pushing forward. And you could never really predict what he was going to do because he was so much his own person. His vision was so pure.

And he was really funny, and he was really good fun to work for. And, you know, he was incredibly loyal and incredibly inspiring.[10]

On February 2, 2010, McQueen's mother, Joyce, died, with McQueen taking his own life just over a week later, on February 11, at the age of 40.[11] Over the course of his incredible career, in addition to his stunning designs and impressive, spectacular runway shows, McQueen's achievement in fashion was recognized countless times: he was named British Designer of the year in 1996, 1997, 2001, and 2003, International Designer of the Year by The Council of Fashion Designer's of America (CFDA) in 2003, A Most Excellent Commander of The British Empire (CBE) by her Majesty the Queen in 2003, and GQ Menswear Designer of the Year in 2007.[12] McQueen was truly a fashion designer with an incredible vision, with his death leaving the fashion world with one less remarkable talent.



[1] Alexander McQueen, Time Out (London), September 24-October 1, 1997, from Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Andrew Bolton, "Preface" (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), 12.


[2] Kristin Knox, "Introduction," in Alexander McQueen: Genius of A Generation (London: A & C Black Publishers Limited, 2010), 15.

[3] Ibid., 16.


[4] Andre Bolton, "Preface," Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), 12.

[5] Kristin Knox, "Introduction," in Alexander McQueen: Genius of A Generation (London: A & C Black Publishers Limited, 2010), 15.

[6] Susannah Frankel, "Introduction," Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), 23.

[7] Ibdi., 23. 


[8] Kristin Knox, "Introduction," in Alexander McQueen: Genius of A Generation (London: A & C Black Publishers Limited, 2010), 16.

[9] Ibid., 16. 


[10] Sarah Burton, "'Jellyfish' Ensemble, Plato's Atlantis, spring/summer 2010," from the exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty online, http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/jellyfish-ensemble-platos-atlantis/ (accessed May 26, 2011).


[11] Susannah Frankel, "Introduction," Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), 27.

[12] Alexander McQueen online, "Biography: Lee Alexander McQueen," http://www.alexandermcqueen.com/int/en/servicePages/biography_lee_alexander_mcqueen.aspx (accessed May 26, 2011).