Alexander McQueen 2001 collection: Gothic Masquerade and The Macabre

Alexander McQueen is in no doubt the most inspirational person who ever lived. His innovative designs have swept both the world of fashion and fine Art. he has never failed to surprise his audience with his incredible canvas of collections. McQueen mostly gets his inspiration through nature, most of his later work was inspired nature and its beauty.

Using his imagination, he translates each detail into a new creative design. he quotes “I’m about what goes through people’s mind, the stuff that people don’t want to admit or face up to. The shows are about what’s buried in people’s Psyches” [1]. the themes that Alexander works from are designs inspired by his own personal life; the emotions that he cannot express through words he uses to portray through his designs. the collection he produced are very exquisite and bold; from the colours to the design of garments and even tackling on nudity to display his thought about women.

Portrait of Alexander McQueen, 1997 photographed by Marc Hom.

(http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-alexander

-mcqueen-savage-beauty/about-the-exhibition/)

[1]http://savagebeauty.alexandermcqueen.com/gothic.html

McQueen’s inspiration:  Late Victorian mourning wear

Robe d’apres-midi

Images reference: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/183029172329099714/?lp=true

Backstage, Horn of Plenty, Autumn/Winter 2009

Photograph by ANNE DENIAU

Horn of Plenty, Autumn/Winter 2009 Photograph by CHRIS MOORE

Supercali, Autumn/Winter 2002

Photograph by CHRIS MOORE

Expanding his inspiration for his 2001 spring/summer collection: Tim Burton’s ‘Beetlejuice’.

http://timburon.wikia.com/wiki/Beetlejuice

scene from movie beetlejuice: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094721/mediaviewer/rm2978438656

image from scene of movie Beetlejuice: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094721/mediaviewer/rm2978438656

Second Inspiration of Gothic: Harry Potter

Illustrated by Mary GrandPrehttp: //www.imdb.com/list/ls000671664/

written by J.k Rowling:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/520728775647816005/

Harry Potter film scene, posted by Pinterest.

20^th Century Witches

Image Witches Doreen Valiente and Patricia Crowther

Posted by https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/393150242462108246/

Alexander McQueen collection that launched in 2001 for his spring and summer collection was inspired by death and romance. McQueen’s designs were influenced by movies and history. His first inspiration of death came from a period during the Late Victorian era mourning clothes, influenced by the design of the long gown and exaggerated flat hats. his respect for history and all its superstition of death and the afterlife gave his aesthetic ideas that was later translated into designs.

Beetlejuice was a film produced during 1988 which was written a Famous director and script writer Tim Burton, this movie was in relation to death and supernatural activity. the log black dresses that can be seen in his design was inspired one of the character in the film called Winona Ryder with her black long gown similar with the mourning clothes, Beetlejuice was a horror/thriller genre the movie encouraged him to portray death in a more explicit design. He collaborated with the filmmaker to create a mise-en-scene performance for his catwalk presentation.

Witches and wizards was another of his influences with their theorised tall black hats and wands encouraged him to travel more into a fiction dream of dark powers and magic.  He explored more into the topic and encountered the book/movie written by J.K Rowling. ‘Harry potter’ was counted as one of his main inspiration because the moving/ book was based on wizard and witches which exists in both fantasy and reality.

Alexander’s mind set was different from other designers because of his positive view in life. He was able to turn death into a positive outcome and used it to hi advantage, he crated a transformative medium using fashion; and as was quoted in response the show “a fairy-tale told in Fabric” (savage beauty article, Alexander McQueen, Gothic collection, published 2001). Over all the designs and performance that he displayed was unique and innovative, to be able to balance death and romance as one emotion is a true talent. He quotes “It is important to look at death because it is a part of life. It is a sad thing, melancholic 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.”

Quotes from: http://savagebeauty.alexandermcqueen.com/gothic.html

Article, Savage Beauty. quote from Lee Alexander McQueen, 2001.

Final Summary 

Task 1/2 was a bit challenging in my opinion as it was the first task and I think that I was a bit frightened to work on it as I left it a bit so that I had a bit more understanding. And I was very confused at first. I believe that further understanding will help me along the way as I was a bit lost in the first task. Also, I was a bit cautious about what theme to talk about, I believe that I went to the whole library and I was going a bit insane choosing but I ended up wondering in the section where traditional fashion, which was a pretty okay theme as I thought I can write about two different countries and talk about them. 

 Task 3/4 academic integrity was really hard as finding issues that people haven’t yet discussed is hard as I didn’t want the similar topics people are doing so I choose on from the past that blew up within social media. Well to my understanding it was a big issue and made a huge impact to the brand that I looked at and how people view this brand  

 Task 5/6 I found this task the easiest one because of the analysis of the images, I like that it was forward, and I didn’t actually take a long time to write essay, but what I found hard was finding what designer I wanted to write about, I didn’t want to choose the typical brands that are well known such as Chanel, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana; I already know so much of their collection, so I think my motive was to challenge myself into finding a designer which I haven’t come across with.  

Task 7/8 reflective writing was the hardest task I have handled throughout this project as it was due to all those reading my mind was shut to what the words was implying and this was a struggle as I have not fully understood the text that Bernard has produced but in the end, I choose a topic that I can make my writing relevant to what the text is within his bibliography. 

 Task 9/10 I believe that this was the second easiest essay I wrote as was comfortable about what the task was as I understood it so much in class and I already done a similar topic in my previous studies, so I knew some part of the ethical issues, I think that due to this information I was able to find a decent amount of references such as movies, music etc… 

 Overall, I have learnt a lot in this project as it was a journey for me, I have never done this much fashion communication in my studies, as far I dissected the text within the authors thoughts, I believe I went into what they were saying as far as I can remember. The challenging part of this essay was the blog itself as I cannot figure out what to do, but It was okay as it was definitely an experience, I think that whenever I handle a task like this I will be more aware of my chosen topics.   

The image of Duncan Quinn who is a luxury tailor is controversial topic as the add shows provocative for some people as it shows a woman being dominated by a man with her barely wearing nothing on, The image shows that the guy seems to be dressed well and that he seems posh and decent in the picture. this topic will definitely spark up the feminist into thinking that men should be powering woman and that they should be more submissive and that they should be seen more weak than men. Which is not mostly the case as theres has been countless of examples that women can be as equal as men, such as The Suffragettes, Coco Chanel, Malala Yousafzai etc… these women proved that all humans should be as equal and that society shouldn’t categories gender norms, I believe that the world is more accepting and more equal but theres still division in us and that some topics haven’t yet accepted in the society eyes.

Social media definitely has an effect that people take in everyday and doing this change their perspective in whats right and wrong, knowing that we live our lives through screens everyday, specially the younger generation they are believe that this is right and manipulated into thinking this is okay, however these movements and brave people who speaks out against these controversial topics changes this and will open minds. But this is not certain as there are people that are close minded and that wont believe this into this.

Knowing that we live in the technology age, we are expose to many things as social media, blogs, movies, music poetry etc.. these are considered to be a normal thing and that woman are either over sexualised or be seen weaker than men, for example 50 shades of grey, we get that this is only a movie and that people wont take affect on it, however we are fed that this is okay, that there are some disturbing things shown on the movie, specially for young adults seeing this they are believe and manipulated into thinking that okay, I get that this is a in every platform somehow sex is more published such as ads, movies and music, and do get that sex should be celebrated as it is a form of love, passion and compassion, however how many times do we have to see that women should be only submissive and sexualise in the media, it is not okay as we all have a sister, niece, kids, mother, friend and wife. And this is how the world should view women. This will cause that men should believe this and that leads to certain cases as sexual harasstment and so on.

Overall I don’t see the relevance in this as it doesn’t really focus on whats really been advertised which is the tailored suit, I think that the over sexualised image is over shadowed by the main focal point and it doesn’t really link, this is mainly to spark conversation and have people talk about this, however, this will make people believe that this is what the brand is about.

This task has enticed me in knowledge and understanding of etymology of the word ‘Fashion’ by ready part of ‘The etymology and the definition of fashion and clothing’ in the book fashion as communication. after reading a section of the first chapter I understood that it was explaining what ‘fashion’ originate from which is the Latin word for ‘factio’. This first chapter has gain me understanding of what this course was about and how fashion can be interpret by other people. 

Through analyzing the chapter, I came across a section that goes in detail of ‘fashion and anti-fashion’ which discussed that fashion makes a huge impact on cultural statuses and social environment, I believe with this statement as we live in an age of technology and that most of the stuff that people of the high caliber such as designer make a commotion into the way fashion is normally perceive, which is reflected in the way people view fashion as a statement piece; people are all about making a statement into the way they clothe themselves to express themselves, for example people who bend and exploit other people’s cultural appropriation, such as people who are uneducated into these matters are mocking other people’s culture, by dressing inappropriately with the essence of still clothing themselves in the same clothing in other cultures. Anti-Fashion is defined as any fashion that intentionally contrary to the mainstream. There are many styles and personalities that people reflected to the way express their individualities in fashion. But these styles may provoke those with low understanding such as people in the older generation into thinking what’s perceive in fashion specially with the young kids dressing with very little clothing these days.  

An example of people who provoke fashion and gender norms are David Bowie, Lady Gaga, Ruby Rose broke gender norms and was accepted by public, although battle some criticism but due to time they were approved by society eyes and that made people be open to more of fashion being more forward than backwards. I believe that fashion has left some part of the traditions in order to move forward and do better thing in the future, this has always been the route of fashion as it’s a place to be innovative.  

Looking at anti fashion made me realize that fashion is evolving as years go by and I think that we should be open to people’s art and it shouldn’t be shunned in society as it should be celebrated, however I do get the consequence’s into dipping into these kind of themes as there are sometimes considered provocative in society’s eyes and it shouldn’t be because due to all the fashion advertising  have always moved forward in fashion and that we should keep moving forward to open our horizon’s, I believe that most fashion these days are considered an art form that wearable art we see in event shows such as met gala and other platforms such as stages, award shows, music videos etc… 

Bibliography  

Bernard, M (2002) Fashion as Communications, London  

Vogue- Vfiles Spring18 RTW

I choose to analyse Vfiles because of their modern feel and urban aesthetics, I like that it’s a statement piece but still have an artistic feel to it, the collection itself has wide range of variety so its preferably to the target audience they are looking for and are selling to. I like that the brand collaborates with young designers and that it gives the brand a lot of personalities in each collection. The brand it’s the first fashion social media platform, it’s a place where the global fashion community creates, collects, shares and discover.

it influences that younger platform as the brand work with musicians which is something I’ve been seeing in fashion specially with underground designs that do events in shops to showcase their work and within that event they organise parties that also involves people to come create and design garments, I believe that events like this helps the brand to further their knowledge and really get to know people and their target audience.

Similar brands such as Philipp Plein recently has a fashion show in NYFW SS18, consist of a range of artist in different platform specially in music where Plein organised a concert which was also a fashion show, I think that this is very innovative specially in fashion as its merging different artist to give back to fans and connects to the fans.

I’ve looked at different ways that the brand was influence by different platforms such as what’s shown in the mood board bellow, within the further analysis I came across a graffiti artist which name himself Hush. His work consists of bold colours and different shapes, I can sense that his work is inspired by the vibrant heritage of Asian cultures such as japan, with making a silhouette of a woman and using the body as a base to make the artist use it as a statement pieces. The artist uses bold strokes which is reflected in the collection. Knowing that the collection is base in streetwear I believe that it was successful as I can see other designers get influence by the shapes and silhouette with this collection.

graffiti artist Hush- https://www.riseart.com/art/seductress-by-hush

moodboard

Vfiles collection (top)- vogue https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2018-ready-to-wear/vfiles/slideshow/collection#9