McQ (by Alexander McQueen): Fall/Winter 2012 Runway Review

Feb 23, 2012 by

McQ Fall / Winter 2012 Runway Show

 

 

McQ Fall / Winter 2012 Runway Show

McQ’s AW2012 line commences with sexy and authoritative Eastern-European-esque outerwear; expertly-crafted, wooly, neutral hourglasses for the McQueen woman who, even at a lower-price point, feels like a masterpiece. It’s a scientific fact that any object appearing in a lit space will have a shadow. And, I think it’s a design fact that any McQueen creation in a lit space will have a more mysterious shadow than any object around it. What is this exquisite, “savage” darkness that follows and sways around each garment and wearer; perhaps it is a kill; perhaps it is the collective spirit of feathers that shingle it’s form (the peakock’s ghostly, all-seeing eye); perhaps it is the final punctuation for the poem born into any cloth that breathes among the scraps that Lee (Alexander) McQueen once touched.

 

 

McQ Fall / Winter 2012 Runway Show

 

McQ Fall / Winter 2012 Runway Show

 

 

There’s a baroque-punk look that appears, covered in green and bluish embroidery. Then, a menswear sweater with several tears and areas where the knit is intentionally loosened. Other looks follow, each in some way “wounded” by needle marks that emboss, impress or compromise the fabric. Under many other houses, these marks would serve to soften the look in some way, to make it look threadbarren, bohemian or grunge; a sporadically-fringed sweater worn by someone living a similarly fringed existence. It is only under Sarah Burton’s careful direction that these tears become battle-scars, an evidence of their owner’s ferocity. An enchanting statuesque captain donning a petticoated filled with bullet holes and secrets.

 

 

McQ Fall / Winter 2012 Runway Show

 

 

McQ Fall / Winter 2012 Runway Show

 

 

McQ Fall / Winter 2012 Runway Show

 

Lee Alexander McQueen, the founder and designer of the house of Alexander McQueen, was a British fashion designer and couturier known for his unparalleled understanding and execution of Birtish tailoring, as well as his emotional and theatrical designs. He had the rare ability to create pieces that seemed at once, fragile, energetic, and amorous; for this reason, his pieces are elevated from mere garments to the category of “high art.” Often a reclusive man, McQueen’s shows appeared and  felt just the opposite: an exquisite and almost dangerous nest for energy and emotional power. McQueen was a 4-time winner of the British Designer of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003), as well as the CFDA’s International Designer of the Year award in 2003.

On February 10, 2010, McQueen left a note saying, “Look after my dogs, sorry, I love you, Lee” before ending his own life. His memorial was attended by the world’s most legendary creative icons; it served as a painful reminder that there’s hardly a contemporary artist who hasn’t been touched by McQueen’s work. One month later, 16 pieces of his near-finished collection were presented during Paris Fashion Week to a select audience in a mirrored, gilded salon at the 18th-century Hôtel de Clermont-Tonnerre.

When it was decided that the label would continue, Gucci appointed McQueen’s long-term assistant Sarah Burton as the new creative director of Alexander McQueen in May 2010. In September 2010, Burton presented her first womenswear collection in Paris

In 2011, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City exhibited a collection of McQueen’s work under the name “Savage Beauty.” Despite being open for only three months, it was one of the most popular exhibitions in the museum’s history.
www.alexandermcqueen.com


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