Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty

The Aesthetics of Spectacle & The Body Politics in Fashion

Anne Chen

What struck [British photographer Nick] Waplington most was the rhythm of McQueen’s creation. “It was almost

Jackson Pollock-style. He would be sitting, smoking, in a chair, and then suddenly jump up and start draping

cloth or pinning. It was very fast, and I felt it was very important to capture

and contrast both moments.” -FT.com

1. violence / death

2. performance / spectacle

3. media experimentation / historical allusions

4. challenge conventions / authority

5. social / political concerns

…and the Woman as his Canvas

1992 “Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims”

S/S 1994 “Nihilism”

blood and mud

F/W 1994 “Banshee”

S/S 1995 “The Birds” Alfred Hitchcock and road kill inspiration

F/W 1995 “Highland Rape” England’s Rape of Scotland

“ At the time, people thought the rape referenced the rape of women. But it was actually the rape of Scotland by England. The collection actually referenced the Jacobite risings of the eighteenth century and the Highland Clearances of the nineteenth century. McQueen saw the Scottish heritage as rather bleak and rather brutal. In this particular collection, you can see that actually manifested in the clothes themselves by the slashing of the garments. ”

-Andrew Bolton

S/S 1996 “The Hunger”

corsets and vampires

F/W 1996 “Dante”

S/S 1998 “The Golden Shower” or “Untitled”

F/W 1998 “Joan” inspired by brutal murders of the Romanov dynasty

S/S 1999 “No. 13”

prosthetics and robots

two robot arms spray paint a model wearing a simple white tube dress

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reK0A1XIjKA

something to consider: Fashion + Performance & Spectacle

(is it still about the clothes..? or more so the theatrics..?)

The End Result (the “brief” performance is now immortalized…)

S/S 2000 “The Eye”

S/S 2001 “Voss”

British journalist Michelle Olley (instigated the now-famous fetish club night, the Rubber Ball)

JOEL-PETER WITKIN (B. 1939) SANITARIUM, NEW MEXICO, 1983

Alexander McQueen later described his thoughts on forcing his audience to stare at their own reflection for over an hour [during “Voss”]:

“ Ha! I was really pleased about

that. I was looking at it on the monitor, watching everyone trying not to look at themselves. It was a great thing to do in the fashion industry – turn it back on them! God, I’ve had some freaky shows. ”

S/S 2009 “Natural Dis-tinction, Un-Natural Selection” (an “environmental message” on global issues like

climate change and industrialization)

F/W 2009 “The Horn of Plenty” (an “environmental message” on global issues like

climate change and industrialization)

S/S 2010 “Plato’s Atlantis”

F/W 2010 “Untitled” McQueen committed suicide before he could finish

Working Thesis: How has McQueen so

effectively used these “shock” techniques to change how we

view the [female] human body..?

The Alexander McQueen “Bumster”

“ That part of the body – not so much the buttocks, but the

bottom of the spine – that’s the

most erotic part of anyone’s body, man or woman. ”

-Alexander McQueen