I don't even know where to begin in expressing my love for Alexander McQueen. If all you recognise McQueen for is for his skull print scarfs and other accessories then you have no need in reading this post. He was so much more than that. When people use the word 'genius' to describe him, 'genius' is an understatement. The depth and intensity behind the meaning of his collections are far beyond the capability and realm of anyone else's mind. He created something beyond a meaning of words, he created feelings and emotions that took us far further than anything we have experienced before.
I remember when I found out about the death of Alexander McQueen; I was having a tutorial with my tutor at Park Street College when one of my friends had read the news and called out in class that McQueen had been found dead in his London home.
It felt like someone had punched me. It sounds so crazy doesn't it? I mean, I never knew him, I never spoke to him, I never even met him; yet McQueen became one of the biggest figures in my life.
I have been a creative person all of my life; I was forever drawing and sketching, painting and moulding and when it came to deciding what I wanted to do with my life, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was going to be in a creative field. One of the driving forces behind my decision to do so came from McQueen. As soon as I saw his work I was hooked, I became OBSESSED, forever researching and reading about him. I had never felt so strongly influenced by something quite as much as him. Through every assignment at school and art school, he was my go to guy. No other designer even compared. All my goals in life where to one day work for him, I drew and I drew, I researched and I worked my butt off to achieve that until the news broke that he had committed suicide.
Although Sarah Burton took the position as creative director, no one could recreate the gift that McQueen gave to us. His legacy still remains, but not in the way it was before.
The first year I started university, I got a skull tattoo on my back; kinda cheesy but I needed something to keep me focused. Every fashion student or 'fashion lover', whatever you want to call them of course loved McQueen, Who wouldn't? He was quirky, he was unique and he was rebellious like most of us fashion people try to be. But most didn't know anything deeper than the aesthetic beauty sprawled on the catwalk.
I wrote my dissertation about McQueen.
Title: 'Alexander McQueen was often criticised for the way he portrayed women in a violent and sexual way, but was McQueen merely communicating what was happening culturally? How could it be argued that these elements manifest themselves in his work?'
Introduction: A question of cultural influence.
Chapter 1: The abject: Trends in visual communication in the 1980s, 1990s and the changing aesthetic.
Chapter 2: The sublime and the changing representation of femininity.
I could write a whole dissertation about McQueen right here and right now, but I think I would probably bore a lot of people; but what I am trying to express is the sheer passion and sublime creativity of Alexander McQueen.
This image above is taken from one of my favourite McQueen shows. It is called 'VOSS'. In this show, McQueen put models in a mirrored box; the audience could see in but the models could not see out. As the models walked around the box, they appeared to be staring at their own reflections in the mirrors that contained them. As the show progressed they become delirious, it was a representation of a mental asylum. The models were being driven insane by their own vanity and obsession for perfection. It was the finale of the show when a central box was unveiled and showed a model who was not 'in the eyes of fashion' beautiful. McQueen was trying to convey the message of what this whole fashion industry is about. He hated it. He was disgusted in what people conveyed as beautiful and that can be appreciated in much of his work. When you look at collections such as highland rape where models appear to have been run over and injured, he was not representing misogyny, but in fact an admiration for these woman and a non-conformative view to fashion.
McQueen is by far one of the most fascinating and interesting people I have ever had to pleasure to research and admire. His exhibition 'Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty' is coming to the London V&A this year. Tickets can be found here.
The exhibition is from the 14th March through to 2nd August 2015.
Me and my boyfriend have booked tickets to go and see it. We chose the actual day of our 1 year anniversary as he wanted to do something which he knew I would love. I really cannot think of anything I would love to do more.
Also a new book has just been released called 'Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano'
You can get this book here from Amazon. It was released only yesterday.
5 years today. Always missed and still adored. There will never be anyone quite like 'Alexander The Great.' Quote Isabella Blow.
Charlotte
Kiss.
