Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Dress
VOSS, spring/summer 2001
Red and black ostrich feathers and glass medical slides painted red
Courtesy of Alexander McQueen
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

Read Michelle Olley’s perspective on appearing in the runway show.

Andrew Bolton: This particular dress came from a collection called VOSS, which was all about beauty. And I think one of McQueen’s greatest legacies was how he would challenge normative conventions of beauty and challenge your expectations of beauty—what we mean by beauty. This particular one is made out of ostrich feathers dyed red. And the glass slides are actually microscope slides that have been painted red to give the idea of blood underneath. And there’s a wonderful quote in association with this dress, where he talks about how there’s blood beneath every layer of skin. And it’s an incredible, again, very powerful, powerful piece.

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In McQueen’s Words

“There’s blood beneath every layer of skin.”

The Observer Magazine, October 7, 2001

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Dress
VOSS, spring/summer 2001
Razor-clam shells stripped and varnished
Courtesy of Alexander McQueen
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

Read Michelle Olley’s perspective on appearing in the runway show.

In McQueen’s Words

“My friend George and I were walking on the beach in Norfolk, and there were thousands of [razor-clam] shells. They were so beautiful, I thought I had to do something with them. So, we decided to make [a dress] out of them. . . . The shells had outlived their usefulness on the beach, so we put them to another use on a dress. Then Erin [O’Conner] came out and trashed the dress, so their usefulness was over once again. Kind of like fashion, really.”

WWD, September 28, 2000

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Coat
Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims (MA Graduation Collection), 1992
Pink silk satin printed in thorn pattern lined in white silk with encapsulated human hair
From the collection of Isabella Blow courtesy of the Hon. Daphne Guinness
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

Andrew Bolton: McQueen made this frock coat for his 1992 graduation collection, which he called Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims. The collection’s title reveals his fascination with the Victorian culture. It also established his distinctly narrative, autobiographical approach to design. One of McQueen’s relatives owned an inn that housed a victim of Jack the Ripper. Here we have Louise Wilson, who was McQueen’s teacher at Central Saint Martins:

Louise Wilson: Well, he always had a story to tell. For instance, they had to do something called a marketing report, which was basically setting their collection in context. And even then, Lee’s report was on genealogy—Jack the Ripper—and quite in-depth. So it was telling the story of his collection even at that stage. You know, it was really, really personal to him. It was linked to his mother; it was linked to her interest in genealogy. Unfortunately, the market report was stolen out of my office, possibly by Lee.

Andrew Bolton: McQueen was a brilliant storyteller, and he began each collection by developing a story that would guide the design of the clothes.

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In McQueen’s Words

“The inspiration behind the hair came from Victorian times when prostitutes would sell theirs for kits of hair locks, which were bought by people to give to their lovers. I used it as my signature label with locks of hair in Perspex. In the early collections, it was my own hair.”

Time Out (London), September 24–October 1, 1997

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Dress
Plato’s Atlantis, spring/summer 2010
Gray wool and silk/synthetic knit printed in jellyfish pattern
Courtesy of Alexander McQueen
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

Andrew Bolton: As you can see here, McQueen designed many permutations of the frock coat. He made this one for the 2010 collection, Plato’s Atlantis. Here we have Sarah Burton—who was McQueen’s head designer for fourteen years—talk about the collection.

Sarah Burton: He was interested in this concept of hybrid. With those tailored pieces, specifically; they had tailored arms, but the body was jersey. So there’s this weird sort of hybrid and juxtapositioning of different fabrics and how would they react together.

So he took these jersey shifts, put them on the mannequin, and then cut into all of these tailored pieces and morphed the two together. When you watched him cut on the stand, it gave you goose bumps because he had a sort of bravery. He was never afraid of anything. It was never, “Oh, this is not going to work.” He was so confident and so clear about the way that he was doing things, and that was, I think . . . part of his genius is his knowledge of every single level of making clothes.

I remember on the last collection he did, he actually—on a piece of felt with a piece of chalk—chalked out a frock coat by eye, cut it out, and pinned it on a dummy and it was a perfect fit. That’s how familiar he was with that piece of clothing.

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In McQueen’s Words

“I like to think of myself as a plastic surgeon with a knife.”

Wynn, Winter 2007/08

“With me, metamorphosis is a bit like plastic surgery, but less drastic. I try to have the same effect with my clothes. But ultimately I do this to transform mentalities more than the body. I try and modify fashion like a scientist by offering what is relevant to today and what will continue to be so tomorrow.”

Numéro, December 2007

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Jacket
Joan, autumn/winter 1998–99
Black cashmere
Courtesy of Janet Fischgrund
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

In McQueen’s Words

“My designing is done mainly during fittings. I change the cut.”

Self Service, Spring/Summer 2002

“[Through cutting, I try] to draw attention to our unrelenting desire for perfection. The body parts that I focus on change depending on the inspirations and references for the collection and what silhouettes they demand.”

Muse, December 2008

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Jacket
It’s a Jungle Out There, autumn/winter 1997–98
Silk and cotton twill printed with an image from The Thief to the Left of Christ by Robert Campin, ca. 1430
Courtesy of Alexander McQueen
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

In McQueen’s Words

“When you see a woman wearing McQueen, there’s a certain hardness to the clothes that makes her look powerful. It kind of fends people off.”

The Guardian, September 19, 2005

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
“Bumster” Skirt
Highland Rape, autumn/winter 1995–96 (re-edition from original pattern)
Black silk taffeta
Courtesy of Alexander McQueen
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

Andrew Bolton: One of his most iconic designs in this particular gallery is the “bumster.” And there’s a lot of mythology around the bumster—that he was inspired by the builder’s bum. In McQueen’s mind, it was an experiment in elongating the body. For McQueen, the most exciting part of anybody’s body, male or female, was the bottom of the spine. And the bumsters is really about showcasing that part of the body.

Mira Hyde: My name is Mira Hyde, and I was living in the East End in an area called Hoxton Square, and Lee had moved into my building. He found out that I was a male groomer—I did hair and makeup for men—and invited me to do his next show. And that was how I first met Lee.

I was given a lot of the bumsters because I was quite small and I could wear them. It made you feel taller, especially when you wore them with heels, because then all of a sudden, you just look incredibly long legged and very long torsoed.

The bumcrack . . . sometimes you could see a bit of it, and sometimes it was just above it, but normally you would see just a touch. It was like a bum cleavage, and depending where I went, I would expose it, or I would wear a long shirt, depending on where I was. But I always got commented on it, everywhere.

Andrew Bolton: The bumster trouser caused a sensation when it was launched in the early nineties. I think what’s interesting about McQueen is how he would harness the attitude in the street. He was very much about anarchy and about the anarchy of the British street, the anarchy of British music, and trying to, again, harness that into his clothes. And the bumster was one of the garments that, very early on, would make his reputation as this provocateur.

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In McQueen’s Words

“[With 'bumsters'] I wanted to elongate the body, not just show the bum. To me, that part of the body—not so much the buttocks, but the bottom of the spine—that’s the most erotic part of anyone’s body, man or woman.”

The Guardian Weekend, July 6, 1996

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Coat
Dante, autumn/winter 1996–97
Black wool felt embroidered with gold bullion cord
From the collection of Isabella Blow courtesy of the Hon. Daphne Guinness
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

In McQueen’s Words

“I spent a long time learning how to construct clothes, which is important to do before you can deconstruct them.”

Self Service, Spring/Summer 2002

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Dress
The Horn of Plenty, autumn/winter 2009–10
Black duck feathers
Courtesy of Alexander McQueen
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

Andrew Bolton: One of the most compelling items in this particular gallery is an ensemble that’s made out of duck feathers dyed black, which gives the impression of a raven. A raven was a Romantic symbol of death. It’s an item that’s very melancholic but also very romantic at the same time. It came from a collection called The Horn of Plenty. And The Horn of Plenty was a collection that was very much inspired by the 1950s haute couture. And you even see the silhouette here; you see the very nipped-in waist, the huge shoulders. McQueen loved a very hard shoulder and a very small waist. So even in this particular garment—even though it seems so extreme—he’s still referencing 1950s couture. He’s still playing with the proportions that he loved so much.

And feathers play such an important role in McQueen’s work. He loved birds. And feathers was a material that he would revisit again and again in his work.

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In McQueen’s Words

“It is important to look at death because it is a part of life. It is a sad thing, melancholy but romantic at the same time. It is the end of a cycle—everything has to end. The cycle of life is positive because it gives room for new things.”

Drapers, February 20, 2010

House of Givenchy Haute Couture
Ensemble
Eclect Dissect, autumn/winter 1997–98
Dress of black leather; collar of red pheasant feathers and resin vulture skulls; gloves of black leather
Courtesy of Givenchy Haute Couture
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

In McQueen’s Words

“[In this collection] my idea was this mad scientist who cut all these women up and mixed them all back together.”

Numéro, July/August 2002

“I don’t think like the average person on the street. I think quite perversely sometimes.”

Dazed and Confused, September 1998