Just a presentation on a little bit I learned and influences

1. ALEXANDER
MCQUEEN
Shannon Lewis

2. Bio
Born 1969 and died 2010, McQueen was a British icon from London to the fashion industry. He
became one of the youngest designers to win ‘British Designer of the Year’ and won it four times
between 1996-2003. He was also named ‘International Designer of the Year’ and was awarded CBE
in 2003 by the Council of Fashion Designers.
When he was 20, McQueen began working for the Japanese designer Koji Tatsuno, who was
creating clothes from antique cloth. This was then followed by Romeo Gigli who was fascinated by
McQueen's unique, obscure tailoring techniques and hired him immediately.
His final collection for his MA degree work received extensive press coverage, where then artist
Isabelle Blow bought the entire collection.
He launched his own label in 1992.
In 1996, he was made head designer at Givenchy. ‘McQueen's sometimes stormy relationship with
Givenchy ended in March 2001.’ – V&A website
Over ten years, McQueen started to open stores in London, New York, L.A, Las Vegas and Milan. He
also started to create more than clothing such as fragrances and cosmetics. Many celebrities wore
clothing from his collection for instance Lady Gaga, Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman.

3. The other day I had visited the
Alexander McQueen exhibition in
the Victoria and Albert Museum in
London called ‘Alexander
McQueen: Savage Beauty’. The
exhibition was extraordinary and
you truly get a great insight to
what each garment is trying to
portray, for instance McQueen’s
second collection for Givenchy ‘
Eclect Dissect’ was based on a
fictional story of a surgeon who
dismembered women and made
them into hybrids using bird parts.
With this collection you can really
see the twisted mind of the
fictional surgeon by how the fabric
would merge with feathers.
There was a lot of black
and dulled colours used in
the collection suggesting
the cruelty and messed up
experiments
Ensemble, eclect dissect, autumn/winter 1997/98

4. The Windows of Culloden was
based on Mcqueen’s interest in his
Scottish heritage. I felt that there
were two distinctive sections to
this collection: one was punk rock
and tartan and the other focused
around delicate natural
objects/creatures.
I found the more nature based
garments fascinating because of
the layers of textures it uses and
also the movement it can create
(light materials). You can really see
the inspirations to nature from its
random textures especially to the
dress on the right 
‘This time the inspiration was the Jacobite Risings that
culminated in the Battle of Culloden (1745), the
collection a memorial to the widows who had lost their
husbands in the bloody conflict.’
Windows of Culloden,
Autumn/Winter 2006

5. I understand how McQueen’s work would not really link to
drawing as it’s fashion based, but I found his work to be
inspiring as he would use odd shapes, materials and
influences to create something extraordinary and
belonging to a different world. He would start off with
natural objects such as shells and animals (birds, deer and
snakes, and then take and manipulate features to create
a garment. Also with every garment and accessories
created he would do many fashion drawings to get his
basic ideas down.
I Have tried this out in the fashion drawings I have
created by drawing shells from different angles and then
picking out the features I like about them. This way of
working is a real test on your imagination as you need to
think of many different ideas and make sure they are
aesthetically pleasing at the same time.

6. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/Alexander
-McQueen/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3373/alexan
der-mcqueen-savage-beauty-4777/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/museumofsavagebeauty/rel/
encyclopedia-of-collections-the-widows-of-culloden/