Carnegie Mellon University Communication Design Fundamentals Project 5 | Digital Magazine Spread DAZED Sean Meng | 2020
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ALEXANDER
MCQUEEN GREATEST CATWALK MOMENTS Ahead of the house’s first London womenswear show since its founder’s death, we look at five of the designer’s most extraordinary moments Story by Tom Rasmussen Images by Chris Moore & Ann Ray & Marc Hom
“Politically and aesthetically, McQueen’s
work embodies the spirit of London – wherever he showed during his nearly 20year long career, the punk sensibility of the capital went with him.”
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Politically and aesthetically, McQueen’s work embodies the spirit of London – wherever he showed during his nearly 20-year long career, the punk sensibility of the capital went with him. This season, for the first time since 2002, Sarah Burton is bringing the house back to its British roots, showing AW16 today at London Fashion Week. Since taking the helm in the wake of her friend and mentor’s passing, Burton has kept his legacy alive by continuing to present collections imbedded with romanticism and exquisite artistry. Ahead of this evening’s show, we look back at five of Alexander McQueen’s most provocative presentations.
lexander McQueen is known as much for his shows as he is for clothes, and it’s impossible to look back in fashion and not automatically think of his legacy. The designer set himself apart with his collision of influences that ranged from low-art to the avant-garde, as well as the characteristic juxtaposition of light and dark that permeated his work and put him on the map. (Image by Ann Ray)
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UNTITLED Spring/Summer 1998
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he show is rumoured to have been named ‘The Golden Shower’ by the designer, but when his sponsors – American Express – realised the phrase’s sexual and excremental connotations they refused to let McQueen use it. In a garage near Victoria station, gurgling acrylic tanks filled with water and lit from beneath in yellow, made up the runway. Tailored jackets were pieced together in checks and stripes eventually peeling away to reveal bandage like dresses wound around bodies – some in yellow python, some in sheer white. Bringing literal meaning to the term ‘make it rain’, golden drops fell from the sky soaking the models and the clothes for the finale. McQueen’s obsession with the dark side of eroticism drove his works in such extreme directions, and if he wasn’t allowed to call his show the golden shower, he was going to make one happen. (Image by Chris Moore)
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JOAN In a storage building in London, cinders were scatAutumn/Winter 1998
tered across the runway foreboding the theatrical burning of a Joan of Arc type figure at the finale of the show, in a ring of fire. Dressed as a knight it was Joan of Arc who, incited by the power of a Catholic God, drove the English out of France in the fifteenth century, before being burned by the British. Use of armour is frequent through McQueen’s body of work –— central to his themes of protection and exposure of the female body, and Joan was the perfect inspiration – a martyr, a hero, and an early modern example of cross-dressing. Undoubtedly, the collection was classically McQueen: a mixture of sex, armour, historical references, and punk culture. (Image by Chris Moore)
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“For the season, McQueen had melded Eastern and Western influences, with the windswept passage representing the journey from East to West.”
SCANNER Autumn/Winter 2003
A scan of McQueen’s brain adorned the photocopied invite, and the house was just about to open its first London flagship and launch its first fragrance. A rock and ice-covered runway, with a giant perspex tunnel suspended above it, set the scene in a hall on the outskirts of Paris. For the season, McQueen had melded Eastern and Western influences, with the windswept passage representing the journey from East to West. Unlike so many designers, McQueen’s use of cultural symbols from across the world was rarely done in token bad taste. Influences would be noted and nodded to, rather than parodied or ‘re-designed’. Dresses and two-pieces were quilted, or fur-lined, or made out of bondage fabric, with inspiration hailing from the armor of Samurai warriors for this season. At close, huge swathes of material wrapped around a nearly naked model, who fought again winds in the tunnel. (Image by Chris Moore)
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NO.13 Spring/Summer 1999
With the advancing technologies of the late 90s,
McQueen took inspiration from William Morris and his peers involved in the Arts and Crafts design movement which occurred between 1860 and 1910. As a rejection of machinery displacing human skill at the turn of the century, design became focussed on highly detailed features. And it was in an old rubbish storage facility that two robotic arms defaced a beautifully constructed white dress, worn by Shalom Harlow on a revolving platform — leaving it difficult to decide whether technology had ruined, or made the dress. Culminating in a maniacal moment, and boundless applause from the audience, the image of the spray-painted dress is perhaps one of the most famous fashion moments. (Image by Chris Moore)
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“Culminating in a maniacal moment, and boundless applause from the audience, the image of the spray-painted dress is perhaps one of the most famous fashion moments.”
WHAT A MERRY GO ROUND Autumn/Winter 2001
Continuing his use of found space, McQueen’s sin-
ister merry-go-round brought people to a disused SW1 bus depot. Pre a totally gentrified London, the designer was known for transporting the then fashion elite to places unfrequented by the middle classes — a feature of his shows which, with each season, added class commentary and infused his works with a political rigor. The night before McQueen was named Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, and the Gucci group had just purchased 51% of his company — all eyes, as ever, were on McQueen. The show began with an antique carousel, horses swaddled in purple and black latex, and models in their military-cum-cabaret wear, moving to the voice of the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
(Image by Chris Moore)
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“I think there is beauty in everything. What ‘normal’ people would perceive as ugly, I can usually see something of beauty in it”
- Lee Alexander McQueen
Rasmussen. T. (2020, June 1). Alexander Mcqueen’s Greatest Catwalk Moments. DAZED. Vol2. 16-23. Story Source - Alexander McQueen’s greatest catwalk moments, Tom Rasmussen - https://www.dazeddigital. com/fashion/article/29941/1/alexander-mcqueen-s-greatest-catwalk-moments IMAGE SOURCES Page 17 Image - http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-alexander-mcqueen-savage-beauty/ about-the-exhibition/ Page 18-22 Image - https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/29941/1/alexander-mcqueen-s-greatest-catwalk-moments
DAZED 2020 Vol.2
DAZED 2020 Vol.2