Vintage Fashion :: coif your hair, wear lots of red lipstick and drink martinis!!
Marie Claire featured a gorgeous 50’s style shoot called ‘Love Me Tender’
photographed with real life retro loving people and the cool venues they hang out in
including Sydney restaurant, Porteno.
Love Me Tender :: Marie Claire AU July 2011
Photography: Hugh Stewart. Produced by Pia Andersen. Styled by Jane Roarty featuring model Fabienne.
{Images via dust jacket attic}
Natalie Portman sheds her good-girl image as the star of Black Swan.
Photographed by Peter Lindbergh in an old hotel space in downtown LA, styled by Tonne Goodman,
the actress dons sweeping gowns for an ethereal story entitled, Spreading Her Wings.
I adore the Rochas white silk tea-length dress she is wearing in this photo.
Drama is dangerous, heroines are carnivores, and talent demands burnt offerings. As Nina in Darren Aronofsky’s gory ballet tale Black Swan, she transforms herself from timid ingenue to powerful maenad. The film is set in a ballet company where dancers vie for the attention of a coldly knowing choreographer; when he casts the virginal, anorexic Nina to star as Odette/Odile, the white swan and the black swan in Swan Lake, she must literally break through her body and lose her mind to be reborn as an artist. Portman’s performance is a tour de force that takes the audience inside Nina, keeps you with her as she transgresses taboos, and makes you participate, for a few thrilling moments when Nina becomes the swan, in the kind of transcendent self-loss that only artists know.
It’s no accident that Nina means “little girl” in Spanish…Nina is an obedient workaholic who lives in a pink-and-white universe ruled by ballet and her mother, and tortures herself in every way, from too much practice to regular vomiting. Her one goal is to be perfect.
Soft hand-pleated silk chiffon dress by J. Mendel.
{Image Natalie Portman: photographed by Peter Lindbergh, styling by Tonne Goodman, Vogue US, January 2011}
A simply luxurious life ~ Anne Hathaway gets caught up in a modern day fairy tale in Paris. She was photographed in iconic locations like the Crillon (she caused a major stir getting out of an antique car) and Maxim’s.
Once upon a time, in 1996, Anne Hathaway spent her fourteenth birthday behind the footlights at the Paper Mill Playhouse in her hometown of Millburn, New Jersey, where she was appearing in a stage version of Gigi, the 1958 movie musical that starred Leslie Caron as a little girl who grows up in the most delightful way. But Hathaway wasn’t playing the title role—she was just a kid in the chorus—and throughout the famous scene at Maxim’s, where Gigi makes her entrance as a woman, she had to sit with her back to the audience, hidden behind a prop.
Now, on a June afternoon in Paris, Hathaway finds herself front and center in the Art Nouveau dining room of the real Maxim’s for a Vogue cover shoot. Looking like a cross between Caron and Audrey Hepburn, Hathaway has spent the past two days gamely flitting about Paris wearing a series of dazzling creations and a staggering amount of diamonds. Here at Maxim’s, she stands in front of the camera in an embroidered Miu Miu top, her hair swept up into a lofty French twist. When she jokes with the crew (“It’s Holly Golightly meets Marge Simpson”), the photographer, Mario Testino, says, “Anne—less talking, more beauty.” Taking his cue, she gazes at the horizon with gentle melancholy, prompting him to say, “Just like that, just like that. Oh, darling, you’re perfect.”
“It was true glamour,” Hathaway says later. “Not just the clothes and the jewels but that feeling that glamour can produce in you, which is like a dream.” We are on our way to the Gare du Nord to catch a train to London, where she’s about to start filming the romantic comedy One Day, directed by An Education’s Lone Scherfig. But first the actress decides to pop into Hermès, on Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré. “I’ve never seen a Kelly bag or a Birkin bag in person,” she tells me, “and at my age, it’s about time.” As she strolls through the store, wearing blue patent leather Sonia Rykiel flats, a flouncy Zara skirt, and a short-sleeved Lanvin T-shirt with a pink silk rose on the shoulder that on her somehow look all-American, shoppers and clerks look up, their soigné indifference giving way to wide grins and low murmurs of “C’est Anne ’Atta-way!” It could be a scene from a sequel to The Princess Diaries, the 2001 cinematic fairy tale that transformed Hathaway, at eighteen, from an aspiring ingenue into Hollywood royalty.
Moments later, a salesman who, if this actually were one of the Princess movies, would be played by Hector Elizondo, oversees the arrival of a stack of boxes bearing the coveted items in various sizes, colors, and skins. First up: a small brown leather Kelly whose clean, classic lines exemplify the 1950s American glamour of its namesake. Hathaway oohs and aahs with appropriate reverence. But it’s the oversize Birkin, with its hippie-chic quality (and heart-stopping price tag), that really makes her gasp. “It’s Heaven,” she says.
If what we wear is an expression of who we are, then Hathaway is still exploring—mixing young, bohemian looks with vintage classics. Labels she likes range from 3.1 Phillip Lim, Rag & Bone, and If Six Was Nine to Céline and Isabel Marant. (She is also obsessed with Freddies of Pinewood, whose retro denim she describes as “my new magic jeans, sort of Marilyn Monroe in her off hours.”) With a bag in each hand, Hathaway steps in front of a mirror, studying herself as she turns from side to side. “I think the Birkin would suit me more,” she pronounces. “As gorgeous as the Kelly is, I think it’s something that you mature into.”
“You are young,” the salesman says.
Photographer Mario Testino and stylist Tonne Goodman cast Anne Hathaway in the center of a fairy tale for the cover feature of the November 2010 issue of Vogue.
In Vogue magazine’s December 2009 interpretation of the Met’s production,
Hansel and Gretel
fry a Marc Jacobs clad wicked witch, Lady GaGa.
Starring actor Andrew Garfield and model Lily Cole, renowned photographer Annie Leibowitz has captured Grace Coddington’s reinterpretation of a classic fable…
I’m Famished Brother and sister are left at home alone and hungry by their stepmother. With not a morsel to eat, they go to pick berries in an enchanted forest. Dolce & Gabbana cream silk-and-tulle dress.
Far From Home They venture out to hunt for wild strawberries in the woods, where Gretel’s lily-white frock shines against the dark foliage of the Tree-men. Before long, though, they’re hopelessly lost. Tree-men costumes courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera. Dior pleated silk-chiffon dress.
Golden Slumber Having lost their way, children encounter strange and magical creatures, one of which lulls them: The Sandman (played here by Sasha Cooke, who has appeared in the Met’s production) sprinkles magic dust onto the frightened children, who fall into a deep sleep and dream about a banquet served by a fish maîtred’. Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière wool-silk jacket. Chloé flats. Sandman and fish maître d’ costumes courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.
Wicked Waking up, Hansel and Gretel are led by a magic bird to a little house in the forest, made of cake and candy. However, the house belongs to an evil witch (portrayed here by Lady Gaga) who wishes to fatten and eat the children. Gretel looks sweet enough to eat in a poufy confection. But it’s Hansel the evil one wants to fatten up and feast on. On Lady Gaga: Marc Jacobs satin bra, slip silk blouse, and ruffled bloomer shorts. On Cole: Yves Saint Laurent embroidered silk poplin dress. Lady Gaga’s wig created by Julien D’Ys.
Feed the Flames Before the witch can cook Hansel and Gretel—whoosh—they push her into the oven and shut the door. From left: Oscar de la Renta bouclé tweed-and-chiffon dress. Marc Jacobs bonded-lamé belted jacket.
The Witch Is Dead! The children (here, the Junior Choristers of Grace Church in New York City) baked into gingerbread by the hag come back to life, and celebrate, singing together. On returning home, the children find that their wicked stepmother has gone. A joyful reunion with their father and their new wealth gives the story a happy ending. Nina Ricci silk satin pleated dress. Chloé flats.
Check out the video for behind the scene tidbits. According to the creative director, Grace Coddington
Lady Gaga arrived at Vogue to discuss the shoot wearing a trailing white chiffon Galliano goddess gown with a Philip Treacy headdress that spelled VOGUE in clipped white feathers. The following day, she came to see Creative Director Grace Coddington in a little black dress with a flaming-red wig, and later appeared on location, as Coddington recalls, “stark naked except for her white rubber raincoat and some very, very high heels!” She then promptly threw herself in the mud at Leibovitz’s feet.”Gaga was so bubbly and chatty and enthusiastic and excited to be alive,” says Coddington. “She was up for anything.” - Excerpt from the December 09 issue of Vogue
Inspired by Richard Jones’s production of the 1893 Engelbert Humperdinck opera this story features:
Fashion Editor, Grace Coddington; hair, Julien D’Ys, using Mokuba Paris Ribbon; makeup, Gucci Westman for Revlon; production design, Mary Howard. Metropolitan Opera costumes designed by John Macfarlane.
In Vogue magazine’s December 2009 issue, renowned photographer Annie Leibowitz captures the images to go along with Grace Coddington’s reinterpretation of a classic fable..
Downton Abbey is jolly good Fellowes. And that’s very hard to deny.
I’m looking forward to curling up for a blissful escapist evening watching this sumptuous costume drama,
with misbehaving servants and repressed masters, a grand country house (Highclere in Berkshire)
& Maggie Smith as the scathing dowager in a role Fellowes wrote specifically for her ~ it’s got to be good!
Written by Julian Fellowes, who has an Oscar for Gosford Park
and a handful of stylish period pieces to his credit including Vanity Fair and The Young Victoria,
has become the man producers go to for tales of upper-class intrigue.
Downton Abbey
is the eponymous house itself, a sprawling, Elizabethan-style country estate and home of the Earl and Countess of Grantham. The inhabitants of the stately house encounter a succession crisis after the sinking of the Titanic.
The show stars Maggie Smith as the matriarch Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham and Hugh Bonneville as Robert, Earl of Grantham. Elizabeth McGovern plays Robert’s wife Cora Smith. Their three young daughters are played by Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael and Jessica Brown-Findlay.
The synopsis from PBS website: It’s 1912, and life in the Edwardian country house of Downton Abbey is idyllic and bustling for the Crawley family, aided by their cadre of servants. Robert, Earl of Grantham, his American heiress wife Cora, and their three daughters, along with Robert’s mother Violet, have lived largely uncomplicated lives. But the sinking of the Titanic hits home in an unexpected and dramatic way — Lord Grantham’s heir, James Crawley, and his son Patrick have perished. It’s personally agonizing (momentarily) for daughter Mary who was supposed to marry Patrick. On a grander scale, suddenly all the predictable succession plans have gone terribly awry, and unheard of questions now loom large — Who will be the new heir to the earldom? And what will happen to this distinguished estate, now in jeopardy? Mary’s grief is short lived as she sets her sights on another suitor, the Duke of Crowborough.
Julian Fellowes, chose the house – in real life, Highclere Castle, the home of the Earl of Carnarvon and his family since 1679 – for its imposing facade that carves an intimidating shadow across the sky.
”In a drama like this, which is about the last days of aristocratic England, this house seemed like a trumpet blast of that.”
Fellowes seems uniquely positioned to bring to life. Apart from his rather diverse credits – acting roles in Monarch of the Glen and Our Friends in the North and writing Gosford Park and the West End hit musical adaptation of Mary Poppins – he is, by his own admission, ”the poor relation” of some rather good connections. His full name is Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, and his wife Emma is a Knight of the Royal Victorian Order, the great-great-niece of the first Earl Kitchener and a lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael of Kent.
Fellowes’ perspective of Britain’s old world – garden parties, dukes, earls, viscounts and the strict, starchy traditions that accompany them – coalesced into the hit 2001 period mystery Gosford Park, at a meeting with the current chief of Carnival Films, Gareth Neame. Almost a decade later, Neame asked Fellowes if he’d consider returning to Gosford Park territory for TV. Fellowes had also been reading extensively about the American heiresses who came to Britain in the 1880s and ’90s and married into the aristocracy, a curious fusion of the US’s hunger for traditional connections and the desperate need of many decaying British estates for a transfusion of American cash.
”We know about these girls arriving and ensnaring their dukes and viscounts but what happened then?” Fellowes asks. ”Twenty-five years later, were they sitting in a house in Staffordshire freezing to death?” Before he knew it, he had the Earl of Grantham and his American wife forming in his mind. ”And when you’ve started to think about characters, you’ve actually said yes, even though you may not know it,” he says.
He also had a long-standing desire to use Highclere Castle as the centrepiece of a story, having tried unsuccessfully to use it as the location for an adaptation of Little Lord Fauntleroy he had produced for children’s TV and, many years later, when Robert Altman directed Gosford Park. ”Highclere makes this fantastic statement about aristocratic confidence,” Fellowes says. ”The people who built it weren’t in any quandary about what their role in the world was and how good it was to be an English earl. They knew it was pretty damn good. The whole system of aristocratic and soon-to-be imperial England is in that building. You go into the great hall, there is every coat of arms connected to the family, every bride is commemorated by her shield, there is a kind of self-confidence that the British haven’t really had since the war.
”The two world wars knocked not only the empire but the stuffing out of them.
The only country which continued to enjoy that self-belief is America.”
The rise of Downton, Michael Idato
Lord and master of Downton Abbey ~ Julian Fellowes Interview
Filming :: Highclere Castle in Hampshire was used as Downton Abbey, with the servants’ living areas constructed and filmed at Ealing Studios. The village of Bampton in Oxfordshire was used for filming the outdoor scenes, most notably St Mary’s Church and the village library, which became the entrance to the cottage hospital.
The first series cost an estimated £1 million an episode. The seven-part series, produced by Carnival Films for Britain’s ITV, was the biggest hit on British television last year. It delivered record ratings, with about 11 million people tuning in every week, and achieved the rarest honour a television program can: dominating the ”national conversation”.
Water for Elephants, starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson
screened last night as a charity fundraiser at the Dendy. The movie is visually beautiful,
set in 1931 with circus glamorous scenes, but the treatment of circus animals is at times heart-breaking.
Actress, Reese Witherspoon is featured on the cover of the May issue of American Vogue
with a circus theme inspired by the movie.
“There’s that determination in her,” says her director, Francis Lawrence, “but there’s also a sense of vulnerability.” Sophie Theallet red silk dress with grosgrain ties.
Reese plays the role of Marlena, the beautiful, star circus performer
who wears dresses from Dior, Sophie Theallet, Narciso Rodriguez and Dolce & Gabban
in this magical circus themed shoot. Makes me want to run away and join the circus!
Reese Witherspoon, in Dolce & Gabbana embellished top and shorts.
Witherspoon, with her Water for Elephants costar Tai. “I enjoy the thrill of doing something dangerous.” Dior sequined, embroidered tulle dress. Lorraine Schwartz pavé-diamond earrings.
PLAY TIME “I don’t wake up to make movies,” she says. “I wake up to have a wonderful family and to cultivate the best life for all of us.” Narciso Rodriguez silk charmeuse dress. Fred Leighton bracelets.
There’s something endearingly about a love story involving a beautiful bareback show rider on a white horse and a kid who runs off to join the circus. The drama is centred around the circus owner, August, who is married to the beautiful bareback rider, Marlena and keeps her and everyone else in his iron grip, often displaying outbursts of violent anger. He is a brutal man who abuses the animals.
The story, based on the best-seller by Sara Gruen, is told as a flashback by an old man named Jacob, who lost his parents in 1931, and consequently dropped out of Cornell University’s veterinary school. He hit the road and jumps onto a passing train, a circus train as fate would have it. He enters a world of freaks, swindlers and misfits in a second-rate circus struggling to survive. August is prepared to throw him off the train until he learns that Jacob is a veterinarian. When the white show horse is heartbreakingly put down, August buys Marlena an elephant, Rosie who becomes the star attraction and saves the The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth from financial ruin.
Below the charismatic but dangerous circus boss August (Christoph Waltz, left) hosts an intimate gathering attended by his wife Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) and newcomer Jacob (Robert Pattinson).
Sara Gruen has said that the backbone of her story parallels the biblical story of Jacob in the Book of Genesis. The book contains multiple references to Ringling Brothers as the premier circus of the time. Also, photos of actual circuses and circus performers of the time are included throughout the book.
The title is drawn from a scene at the beginning of the novel, where Jacob mocks another resident at the nursing home who claims to have worked in the circus and carried water for the elephants.
Sara Gruen is a Canadian-born dual citizen (Canadian and American) author. Her books deal greatly with animals and she is a supporter of numerous charitable organizations that support animals and wildlife. Gruen moved to the United States in 1999 in order to take a technical writing job. When she was laid off two years later, she decided to try writing fiction. Gruen is an animal lover; both her first novel, Riding Lessons, and her second novel, Flying Changes, involve horses. Gruen’s third book, the 1930s circus drama Water for Elephants, was initially turned down by her publisher at the time, Avon Books, forcing Gruen to find another publisher. It went on to become a New York Times bestseller and is now available in 44 languages.
{Images 1-4. photographed by Peter Lindbergh for Vogue May; 5-9. movie stills by David James}
Such a beautiful book that I bought one as a present for a gorgeous friend and couldn’t resist one for moi! It’s a personal scrapbook of memories, recipes and collected artifacts
- with proven recipes that have been finessed over time and generations. This book is a study of collections; collected recipes and collected images – it takes the old and reworks them into something vibrant and new. The bowerbird in me loves it!
Keepsakes by Frances Hansen, who is Fleur Wood’s sister.
This book grew out of the wedding present scrapbook Frances gave Fleur.
It’s full of handwritten notes and recipes passed down through the family.
And how beautiful is their mum on her wedding day….
Fran is an artist and lives in New Zealand. She has collected recipes from family ~ mother, great aunts and grandmothers and assembled them in a whimsical and nostalgic manner. Each page is a collage that has been painstakingly put together and then photographed, so it literally is a work of art that you can have on your book shelf or, preferably, on your coffee table. It’s reminiscent of the cobbled-together cookbooks and magazine cuttings that our mothers and grandmothers might have hidden in their kitchen cupboard.
Ok, I’m inspired to bake! xoxo
{Images Keepsakes by Frances Hansen (Hardie Grant). via Mrs Press & Food Fashion Friends}
The Ultimate Behind the Scenes Look at the Met Gala 2011
Walk up the red-carpeted stairs, step inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and check out the biggest party of the year. Get a peek at the featured exhibit, “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” and view the never-before-seen performance of Florence + the Machine inside the Temple of Dendur…
And the day before the unveiling of “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”, William Norwich slipped inside the doors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to find out what, exactly, is required to pull off the party of the year. There—amid a fashionable frenzy—he captured the scene, interviewing key players (from Vogue Special Events Director Sylvana Ward Durrett to decor director Raúl Àvila to curator Andrew Bolton) about planning one of fashion’s biggest events—and just how much they still had to do with mere hours left on the clock. See it here.
Savage Beauty {Part 11} :: celebrating the late Lee Alexander McQueen’s extraordinary contribution to fashion. For McQueen fashion was an art form, and his runway shows were theatrical productions.
“What I realize that he created a world for himself where he could do anything he wanted to do, with no constraints.” Sarah Burton, Creative Director of Alexander McQueen
Shocking, visionary, artist, fashion designer, impeccable tailor
~ Alexander McQueen is honoured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute in an exhibition that recognises the iconic work of the late British designer and courtier. The exhibition recognises the iconic work of the late British designer and courtier Lee Alexander McQueen, known for the strong, sensual, provocative, technically complicated and beautifully crafted designs of his 19-year career.
Alexander McQueen was best known for his astonishing and extravagant runway presentations, which were given dramatic scenarios and narrative structures that suggested avant-garde installation and performance,” said Andrew Bolton, Curator of The Costume Institute. “His fashions were an outlet for his emotions, an expression of the deepest, often darkest, aspects of his imagination. He was a true romantic in the Byronic sense of the word – he channeled the sublime.”
An elegant tribute to the Scottish Highlands of his ancestry ~ jeweled gowns, billowing velvet capes and gorgeous tartans.
Dress, Sarabande, spring/summer 2007
“Remember Sam Taylor-Wood’s dying fruit? Things rot…I used flowers because they die. My mood was darkly romantic at the time.” Lee Alexander McQueen
At the time of the show, the dress was covered in fresh flowers ~ “We put them on just before [the model] went out, and they started to fall off one by one as she walked. I remember people saying Lee timed it. We had a laugh about that. It was an accident!” Sarah Burton
Ensemble, Dante, autumn/winter 1996–97
The Costume Institute’s “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is insanely beautiful, intensely dramatic, and — most importantly — profoundly moving. Spanning from McQueen’s Central Saint Martins graduation collection to his posthumous autumn/winter 2010-11 show, the exhibit celebrates an extraordinary and prolific career cut tragically short. VOGUERISTA
Approximately 100 ensembles and 70 accessories are on display including some of his signature designs such as the bumster trouser, kimono jacket and the origami frock. The seven galleries within the exhibition explore the recurring themes of his work:
“The Romantic Mind, Romantic Gothic, The Cabinet of Curiosities, Romantic Nationalism, Romantic Exoticism, Romantic Primitivism, and Romantic Naturalism.”
The opening room shows early works that emphasise his impeccable hand at tailoring, learned during his time apprenticing on Savile Row, and moves into the opulent, provocative works.
‘Dante’, ‘Banshee’, ‘Highland Rape’, ‘The Widows of Culloden’, ‘Horn of Plenty’ – pieces from all those collections which were staged and presented as performance art and techno-theatre, first in London, then in New York, then Paris. A 40ft oak tree, representing McQueen’s relationship with the forces of nature, stands in the foyer of the Met, recalling another collection, ‘The Girl Who Lived in The Tree’; a theme which has been carried through in the use of heather and boxwood hedging, by Raul Avila, with Gainsbury and Bennett. Hilary Alexander
The “Cabinet of Curiosities” includes various atavistic and fetishized objects such as woodcock wings, rubber, copper and quills, often produced with milliner Philip Treacy and jeweler Shaun Leane, longtime collaborators of McQueen’s: ~ a flurry of butterflies from Philip Treacy, Samurai armor inspired headpieces, sculpted shoes in the shape of a mutated spine. A glass case encloses the hologram of Kate Moss, realised by Baillie Walsh for the autumn/winter 2006 collection. Also included is the infamous trapeze-like dress worn by Shalom Harlow for the Spring 1999 show. She was spun around mechanically on the runway and spray painted with robotic nozzles.
Dress, No. 13, spring/summer 1999
“[The finale of this collection] was inspired by an installation by artist Rebecca Horn of two shotguns firing blood-red paint at each other.” Lee Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” was launched at the annual Costume Institute Benefit Gala, known as the Met Ball. This fundraising event is The Costume Institute’s main source of annual funding for exhibitions, acquisitions, and capital improvements. Numerous celebrities walked the red carpet. The gala evening was hosted by Honorary Chairs Francois-Henri Pinault, the CEO of PPR, which owns the McQueen brand, and his wife, Salma Hayek, with Colin Firth, Stella McCartney and Anna Wintour as co-chairs.
The exhibition is organized by Andrew Bolton, curator, with the support of Harold Koda, curator in charge, both of the Met’s Costume Institute. Sam Gainsbury and Joseph Bennett, the production designers for Alexander McQueen’s fashion shows, serve as the exhibition’s creative director and production designer, respectively. Sam Gainsbury’s company Gainsbury & Whiting was responsible for the ground-breaking, sense shattering runway shows McQueen staged over the years. All head treatments and masks are designed by Guido Palau.
Photography by Sølve Sundsbø, who shot ensembles from the McQueen archive on live models, then retouched the images to make them look like mannequins, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
{Images via iiiinspired & mad alice style}
McQueen continues to be celebrated ~ the MET’s Savage Beauty exhibition and gala opening, Daphne Guinness dresses in Barneys’ Madison Ave window, and oh, THAT Royal wedding dress.
McQueen’s legacy is his artistry ~ fashion is art, and that clothes can be layered in meaning and beauty.
I hope the extraordinary Alexander McQueen is relishing all the love in spirit…
It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since the death of Alexander McQueen. The extraordinary designer hanged himself on the eve of his mother’s funeral. He was just 40 years old. McQueen had been battling depression, but few expected such a drastic turn from the young designer who was at the height of his very successful career.
“I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists. I have to force people to look at things.”
This week the Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted a retrospective of McQueen’s designs that span from his student work of the early 1990s to his last days. The exhibition celebrates the late Alexander McQueen’s extraordinary talent, featuring many of the designer’s iconic designs drawn from the Alexander McQueen Archives in London and Paris as well as private collections.
The Costume Institute’s ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’ exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is insanely beautiful, intensely dramatic, and — most importantly — profoundly moving. Spanning from McQueen’s Central Saint Martins graduation collection to his posthumous autumn/winter 2010-11 show, the exhibit celebrates an extraordinary and prolific career cut tragically short. feature many of the designer’s iconic designs drawn from the Alexander McQueen Archives in London and Paris as well as private collections.feature many of the designer’s iconic designs drawn from the Alexander McQueen Archives in London and Paris as well as private collections. Julia Rubin, Styleite
Take a walk through the exhibition with curator Andrew Bolton.
Vogue included six looks from the exhibition, all captured by legendary photographer Steven Meisel. The fantastic shots{some are below}, feature models who were friends of the designer, including Coco Rocha, Karen Elson, Stella Tennant, Karlie Kloss, Caroline Trentini, and Raquel Zimmerman.
Mr. McQueen challenged and expanded the understanding of fashion beyond utility to a conceptual expression of culture, politics, and identity. His iconic designs constitute the work of an artist whose medium of expression was fashion. Approximately one hundred examples will be on view, including signature designs such as the bumster trouser, the kimono jacket, and the Origami frock coat, as well as pieces reflecting the exaggerated silhouettes of the 1860s, 1880s, 1890s, and 1950s that he crafted into contemporary silhouettes transmitting romantic narratives. Technical ingenuity imbued his designs with an innovative sensibility that kept him at fashion’s vanguard. The Met
After reading the review by Julia Rubin, styleite re-posted below, I really want to jump on a plane to New York!
McQueen’s work gave us insight into a creative mind consumed by passion, beauty, darkness, and drama. While viewing clothes in fashion editorials and runway videos is often the way we experience his (and all) collections, it goes without saying that nothing compares to seeing the pieces in person. And for all the excitement of his runway shows, it is only through an exhibition such as this one that the clothing can be fully analyzed and absorbed. There is nothing quite like being greeted by two magnificent creations from the VOSSspring/summer 2001 collection, and actually seeing a dress made out of ostrich feathers and glass medical slides alongside one made of razor-shell clams. In photos, they impress; in person, they mesmerize.
For the most part, the exhibit’s curation veers away from gimmicky built environments, allowing McQueen’s exquisite craftsmanship to steal the show. The galleries are organized thematically, but there is a nice sense of chronology, with the first gallery including pieces from his graduation collection (Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims, 1992) and the last featuring a row of mannequins modeling looks from the final collection he bowed (Plato’s Atlantis, spring/summer 2010).
One gallery is devoted almost entirely to the hats, shoes, jewelry, and bodypieces that McQueen both produced and commissioned to complement his clothes; Philip Treacy’s headwear and Shaun Leane’s metalworks are obvious standouts. Another gallery is narrow and mirrored with mannequins on revolving platforms, while yet another focuses on his “romantic nationalism” by showcasing his Scottish-themed collections (including autumn/winter 1995-96’s Highland Rape). There are pieces from his time at Givenchy, as well as a miniature version of the Kate Moss hologram from his autumn/winter 2006-07 Widows of Culloden show.
The soundtrack — largely orchestral with dramatic show music mixed in — only adds to the haunting nature of the work in question. Videos made for various runway shows are sprinkled throughout, and quotes from McQueen are posted alongside the gallery identifications.
Dress, Widows of Culloden, autumn/winter 2006–7
“When we put the antlers on the model and then draped over it the lace embroidery that we had made, we had to poke them through a £2,000 piece of work. But then it worked because it looks like she’s rammed the piece of lace with her antlers. There’s always spontaneity. You’ve got to allow for that in my shows.” Lee Alexander McQueen
Sarah Burton Talks McQueen
Designer of the moment, Sarah Burton spoke to Vogue about the vision behind McQueen’s most iconic collections. It’s a candid look at what it was like to work with someone as creative as McQueen, someone for whom dip-dying medical slides and sourcing horsetails from the Queen is not an unreasonable idea. But it was equally fascinating to hear that Burton’s own wedding dress was once a source of inspiration for the late designer.
Of McQueen’s “Widows of Culloden” collection (above), Burton told Mower:
“The collection was about the 1745 massacre of the Scottish Jacobites by the English, which Lee felt so passionately about because of his Scottish family heritage, which his mother had researched. The women were the widows of the slaughtered army. This dress was actually based on my wedding dress—I got married two years earlier. We had to figure out how to make lace work in the round with those ruffles because Lee hated gathering. So we cut out all of the flowers from the lace and reappliquéd it on tulle to make our own fabric. This is the collection most people remember as the one with Kate Moss in a hologram. Oh, my God, it was so beautiful. He loved that show.” Sarah Burton Reminisces About Alexander McQueen for Vogue via styleite
“Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” is on view until July 31 at the Met. For more, The Met has a great blog.
{Images via The Backseat Stylers, Olivia’s Obsession. Note: mannequin photos by Sølve Sundsbø, who shot ensembles from the McQueen archive on live models, then retouched the images to make them look like mannequins}
Enjoy a ride on the White Carousel Take pleasure in the journey. I hope you feel happy & inspired.
Love, Cate
