Everyone loves to talk about the weather in London. It’s almost like a person with its own character traits — unpredictable, humorous and vengeful are only some of appellations you hear. When I got to the V&A museum for Savage Beauty: the Alexander McQueen retrospective, it occurred to me that the exhibit was just like the London weather in that nothing prepares you for what you’ll get.
Born Lee Alexander McQueen in Lewisham, South London, the designer began as a tailor’s apprentice with Anderson & Sheppard in Savile Row, who were also the official tailor to the Prince of Wales. This experience gave him the rock-solid foundation to build his edifice. No surprise, then, that his graduate collection at the Central Saint Martins was a 10-piece collection titled ‘Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims’, inspired by Victorian London and techniques from his days at Savile Row and featuring locks of hair stitched and bonded under linings. The whole collection was later purchased by stylist and fashion editor Isabelle Blow, who used it for British Vogue .
It’s always difficult to encapsulate an artist’s entire lifetime of work in a single show but Savage Beauty outlines the dominant themes of McQueen’s extraordinary body of work. The first section titled ‘London’ focuses on his early collections and displays signature McQueen silhouettes including the ‘Bumster’ trousers. The other sections include his fascination with dark and light, life and death, themes of nature and survival. His fascination with the animal world comes through in the ‘Romantic Primitivism’ section that includes garments crafted from horn, skin and hair. The walls of this room are made of human bones; it’s eerie at first but surprisingly you get used to it. McQueen takes inspiration from his Scottish heritage in the ‘Romantic Nationalism’ room. There are rich wood-panelled walls and stunning chandeliers that transport you to the colonial past of Britain. The narrative here is strongly political — the Scottish kilt is reinterpreted and a hint of Indian silk and patterns allude to the British Raj.
McQueen’s collections have always been presented in the most unique set-ups. The ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ section is both the focal point to the exhibit and the grand catwalk. It is presented in a double-height gallery that showcases over 120 garments and accessories, with collaborations with milliner Philip Treacy and jewellers Shaun Leane and Sarah Harmarnee. This area really does remind you of all the times McQueen created what can be only described as ‘fashion theatre’ — from making his models walk on water while being bound and chained, to making it rain and snow on them, he has created some of the most iconic catwalk shows in the history of fashion. From light and acrobatic shows to circus theatrics, McQueen transported his vision for his clothes to the presentation itself.
There is a replica of the ‘VOSS’ show, where he seated the audience around a giant mirrored cube. The show started an hour late intentionally and the audience was forced to stare at themselves until finally the cube lit up revealing a hospital setting. The models were trapped inside the cube in theatrical dresses. Towards the end of the show, the box in the centre lit up, slowly opened and ultimately crashed letting out moths and then revealed a naked Michelle Olley reclining on a couch, breathing through a tube. Alexander McQueen interrogated the notion of beauty, life and death and nature, all central concepts in his entire body of work. Michelle Olley is a journalist and writer who, by no means, fits the stereotype of a model. When you see this voluptuous woman reclining on a lace-covered sofa made from huge cow horns, you slowly begin to see the point McQueen makes. The entire show was based on Joel Peter Witkin’s photograph, ‘Sanitarium’, of a 20-stone middle-aged woman, connected with a breathing tube to a stuffed monkey. Olley’s bandaged head was covered in a pig-mask in grey, with a breathing pipe protruding from her mouth, while her body was covered in moths. With this show, McQueen oscillated between beauty and macabre and challenged conventional ideas of beauty.
McQueen’s last fully realised collection, ‘Plato’s Atlantis’, is set within a futuristic narrative where ice caps have melted and humanity is forced to live under the sea. In real life, he was an avid scuba diver and this helped inspire this collection. McQueen committed suicide in early 2010 and his brand is now helmed by his long-term assistant Sarah Burton. “Savage Beauty is a celebration of the most imaginative and talented designer of our time. Lee was a genius and true visionary who pushed boundaries, challenged and inspired. He believed in creativity and innovation and his talent was limitless,” said Burton.
My favourite part of the exhibit was Pepper’s Ghost, which provided the finale to ‘The Widows of Culloden’ collection. A spectral image of an ethereal Kate Moss makes a stunning visual treat and also brings to life the beauty and fragility in his designs. But, was his preoccupation with death his way of celebrating life?
