With Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty set to open on 14 March at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, there has been a flurry of features–especially in the British press–looking back on Alexander McQueen’s work and life. So far, most of it deals with the key milestones in his life, the darkly beautiful vision that informed his work and the inevitable mention of his suicide. The release of a new biography on McQueen and John Galliano, titled Gods And Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, has also added to the buzz in the run-up to the exhibition.

While this article by Jess Cartner-Morley of The Guardian covers much of the same ground, it stands out for delving more deeply into the influences that shaped McQueen’s designs and reveals a life impulse that stands in stark opposition to the macabre sensibility that he was synonymous with. Indeed, while McQueen work often explored the primal, violent side of nature that sometimes distressed his audience, it was this tussle between the powerful and powerless that revealed his desire to understand and depict life as it was. The fact that no one tends to expect such an exploration in the fashion arena made him even more outstanding.

I was particularly struck by how astutely Cartner-Morley’s article highlighted the fact that McQueen’s work drew from David Attenborough and confessional poets, because it rings very true when I look back on his work. Indeed, McQueen’s work was inspired deeply not only by the beauty of the natural world but its raw savagery, just as Attenborough’s documentaries aim to present. This menacing energy courses through McQueen’s work as he forces us to confront our most primal selves, and while we revel in the sheer genius and craftsmanship of his work, we are also aware that much of it comes from McQueen mining his own complex emotions and pain to present his vision of life’s brutality to us. Yet, he was also interested in its beauty, and even though it was often portrayed in nature’s transience and fragility, as he did via works such as an opulently romantic gown made entirely from flowers in his Spring/Summer 2007 collection, Sarabande, he was also intensely interested in how nature reveals hints about our evolution as a species, as demonstrated in 2010’s Plato’s Atlantis. That show, also his last, embraced the future on every level, whether it was the reptilian yet oddly ethereal women in hoof-like shoes or the self-referential tracking cameras that reflected their every move back to them.

Featuring insights from key figures such as current reative director Sarah Burton, V&A curator Claire Wilcox and show producer Sam Gainsbury, the article reveals that with influences as diverse as history and nature combined with impeccable tailoring and an anarchic spirit, McQueen’s work–and the man himself–was a perfect storm that not only shook up the fashion world, bringing much-needed complexity and gravitas to fashion as a narrative and aesthetic medium, but also identified him as quintessentially British. Indeed, McQueen was a one-off, and this article is a fitting tribute to a revolutionary.

Credits:

Image:
A model wearing armadillo boots at Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2010 show, Plato’s Atlantis, by Lauren Greenfield/Institut from The Guardian

Videos:
Video of Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2007 collection, Sarabande, from YouTube
Video of Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer runway 2010 show, Plato’s Atlantis, by SHOWstudio from YouTube