Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (Fashion Studies)

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I spoke with Gwen Roginsky—who has served as the publication director and production manager of Costume Institute books for twenty years—about her experience working on the Museum’s best-selling publication to date. an oversized art collection highly recommended for any college-level arts holding. . . . The most radical designs of his career are presented here, with critical analysis perfect for any arts or fashion library."-- The Midwest Book Review McQueen expressed this originality most fundamentally through his methods of cutting and construction. These were both innovatory and revolutionary. He was such an assured designer that his forms and silhouettes were established from his earliest collections, and remained relatively consistent throughout his career.

Nature was the greatest, or at least the most enduring, influence upon Alexander McQueen. Many artists of the Romantic Movement presented nature itself as a work of art. McQueen both shared and promoted this view in his collections, which often included fashions that took their forms and raw materials from the natural world. The installation curated by Andrew Bolton at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is absolutely wonderful, astonishing, extraordinary! I would give this book five stars if it contained photographs from the actual installation -- raw concrete stages, aged mirrors, Cabinet of Curiosities room, etc. This 8.5 minute video will give you a good overview of the "experience": http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermc... VOSS (Spring/Summer 2001), also known as the ‘Asylum’ show, was staged inside a vast two-way mirrored box. The collection featured a number of exoticized garments, including a coat and a dress appliquéd with roundels in the shape of chrysanthemums. For every heaven-sent gown come half a dozen that seem to have risen straight up from the underworld

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Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty examines the full breadth of the designer’s career, from the start of his fledgling label to the triumphs of his own world-renowned London house. It features his most iconic and radical designs, revealing how McQueen adapted and combined the fundamentals of Savile Row tailoring, the specialized techniques of haute couture, and technological innovation to achieve his distinctive aesthetic. It also focuses on the highly sophisticated narrative structures underpinning his collections and extravagant runway presentations, with their echoes of avant-garde installation and performance art. This book . . . helps illuminate McQueen's artistic process. Recommended for readers with an interest in contemporary fashion."— Library Journal Alexander McQueen (17 March 1969 - 11 February 2010) was an icon in the fashion industry. He is currently the subject of a spectacular exhibition of his works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and this book serves as a catalogue for that exhibition. From the lenticular cover by Gary James McQueen ('Lenticular printing is a technology in which a lenticular lens is used to produce images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles') to the layout or deign of the book itself to the extraordinary photography (by Sølve Sundsbø) this book is an art piece by itself. This book . . . helps illuminate McQueen's artistic process. Recommended for readers with an interest in contemporary fashion."-- Library Journal features new glorious photos of some of the late designer's most glorious pieces. The book also includes Tim Blanks's interview with McQueen's successor, Sarah Burton—one of the most extensive that's been conducted to date."

After his tailoring apprenticeship, he went on to learn exact military tailoring and then the detailed art of the Japanese kimono. The final images, which kept the hands and eliminated the hardware, worked. Their focus is on the clothing, and the garments look natural because they were photographed on living bodies. The shots are dramatic and better reflect how McQueen’s clothes are made to be seen. Alexander McQueen consistently promoted freedom of thought and expression and championed the authority of the imagination. In this, he was an exemplar of the Romantic individual, the hero-artist who staunchly followed the dictates of his inspiration. McQueen’s brilliance is celebrated in this sumptuous tome. . . . The hologram cover makes it a collector’s item.”— Harper’s Bazaar Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty opened at The Met in 2011. This year we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the exhibition and its publication, which has sold over 340,000 copies and counting. Written by Andrew Bolton—with an introduction by fashion journalist Susannah Frankel and an interview with Alexander McQueen’s creative director, Sarah Burton, conducted by Tim Blanks—this stunning book remains an essential publication on the groundbreaking artistry of this provocative designer.PDF / EPUB File Name: Alexander_McQueen_-_Andrew_Bolton.pdf, Alexander_McQueen_-_Andrew_Bolton.epub

Victoria and Albert Museum, London London was at the heart of McQueen’s world. The son of a taxi driver, he grew up in the East End and left school at 15 to become a tailor’s apprentice on Savile Row in Mayfair. In 1990 he joined the prestigious MA Fashion course at Central Saint Martins. Already a highly proficient and inventive tailor, here he learned how to be a fashion designer, drawing inspiration from London’s history, its world-class museums and emerging BritArt scene. Savage Mind ‘You’ve got to know the rules to break them. That’s what I’m here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.’ Our book holds up because of its exceptional photography, design, text, and curation. Andrew selected each piece to tell a broader story. Thumbnail images of some of McQueen’s fashion shows give a sense of his creative process and show how he presented his work. Quotes from McQueen about his work appear throughout the book.

Alexander McQueen’s collections were fashioned around elaborate narratives that were profoundly autobiographical, often reflecting upon his ancestral history, specifically his Scottish heritage. Indeed, when he was once asked what his Scottish roots meant to him, the designer responded, “Everything.” McQueen’s national pride is most evident in The Widows of Culloden (Autumn/Winter 2006) which was based on the final battle of the Jacobite Risings in 1745. A grand collection, it presented a catharsis to the anti-romanticism of his earlier, Highland Rapecollection of 1995. McQueen’s message, however, remained defiantly political: ‘What the British did there was nothing short of genocide.’ I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists. I have to force people to look at things.’ – Alexander McQueen McQueen's romantic sensibility propelled his creativity and advanced his fashion in directions both unimagined and unprecedented. His individualistic and defiant vision was augmented by an acute sense of time and place, and a preoccupation with the exotic and the untamed. Filtered through a powerful modernity McQueen's work was, above all, driven by his fascination with the beauty and savagery of the natural world.

A captivating tribute to the designer’s most radical and beautiful creations. . . . I love all the detail shots which highlight the sheer intricacy of his work.”—Claire Brayford, Daily Express Named one of the Top Ten Best Books of 2011 by Library Journal, named to Time's list of Best Gift Books for 2011, listed in the Best of Art Books section of The Wall Street Journal's Gift Guide, and named one of ForeWord's 2011 Book of the Year Awards Finalists. Alexander McQueen's dashing creativity was expressed through the technical artistry of his designs and the dramatic intensity of his fashion shows. Drawing on avant-garde installation and performance art, these were also emphatically autobiographical. McQueen fearlessly challenged the conventions of fashion. Rare among designers, he saw beyond clothing's physical constraints to its conceptual and imaginative possibilities. By Andrew Bolton, with contributions by Susannah Frankel and Tim Blanks; Photography by Sølve Sundsbø McQueen frequently played upon the transformative powers of clothing. In The Widows of Culloden (Autumn/Winter 2006)a dress created entirely from pheasant feathers imbued the wearer with an avian beauty, while a razor clam shell encrusted dress from VOSS (Spring/Summer 2001)formed a brittle carapace. Sarabande (Spring/Summer 2007)incorporated both silk and real flowers, which withered as they fell onto the catwalk.

14 March - 2 August 2015

London was the epicentre of McQueen’s world. The son of a taxi-driver, he grew up in the city’s East End and left school at 15 to become a tailor’s apprentice on Savile Row in Mayfair. In 1990 he joined the prestigious MA Fashion course at Central Saint Martins. Already a highly proficient and inventive tailor, here he learned how to be a fashion designer, drawing inspiration from London’s history, its world-class museums and emerging ‘Brit art’ scene.