User:Dennis van Vreden/notesSavageBeauty
Alexander McQueen - Savage Beauty 2011, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 4 - July 31th, 2011
"I want to empower women. I want people to be afraid of the women I dress"
"It's almost like putting armor on a woman. It's a very psychological way of dressing."
"I'm about what goes through people's minds, the stuff that people don't want to admit or face up to. The shows are about what's buried in people's psyches."
"I think there has to be an underlying sexuality. There has to be a perverseness to the clothes. There is a hidden agenda in the fragility of romance. It's like the Story of O. I'm not big on women looking naïve. There has to be a sinister aspect, whether it's melancholy or sadomasochist. I think everyone has a deep sexuality, and sometimes it's good to use a little of it -and sometimes a lot of it- like a masquerade."
"For me, what I do is an artistic expression which is channeled through me. Fashion is just the medium."
"Scotland for me is a harsh, cold and bitter place. It was even worst when my great, great grandfather used to live there… The reason I'm patriotic about Scotland is because I think it's been dealt a really hard hand. It's marketed the world over as… haggis… bagpipes. But no one ever puts anything back into it."
"[In this collection] she was a feral creature living in the tree. When she decided to descend to earth, she was transformed into a princess."
"I want to be honest about the world that we live in, and sometimes my political persuasions come through in my work. Fashion can be really racist, looking at the clothes of other cultures as costumes… That's mundane and it's old hat. Let's break down some barriers."
"I like things to be modern and still have a bit of tradition." "I believe in history."
"Working in the atelier [at Givenchy] was fundamental to my career… Because I was a tailor, I didn't totally understand softness, or lightness. I learned lightness at Givenchy. I was a tailor at Savile Row. At Givenchy I learned to soften. For me, it was an education. As a designer I could have left it behind. But working at Givenchy helped me learn my craft."
"Birds in flight fascinate me. I admire eagles and falcons. I'm inspired by a feather but also its color, its graphics, its weightlessness and its engineering. It's so elaborate. In fact I try and transpose the beauty of a bird to women."
(about Plato's Atlantis, spring/summer 2010 collection) "[This collection predicted a future in which the ice cap would melt… the waters would rise and… life on earth would have to evolve in order to live beneath the sea once more or perish… Humanity [would] go back to the place from whence it came."
"There is no way back for me now. I am going to take you on journeys you've never dreamed were possible."
"It's the ugly things I notice more, because other people tend to ignore the ugly things."
"I especially like the accessory for its sadomasochistic aspect."
"It needs to connect with the earth. Things that are processed and reprocessed lose their substance."
"Let me not forget the use of my own hands, that of a craftsman with eyes… that reflect the technology around me."
fe·ral1 [feer-uhl, fer-] adjective 1. existing in a natural state, as animals or plants; notdomesticated or cultivated; wild. 2. having reverted to the wild state, as from domestication: apack of feral dogs roaming the woods. 3. of or characteristic of wild animals; ferocious; brutal. Origin: 1595–1605; < Medieval Latin, Late Latin ferālis bestial,wild, equivalent to Latin fer(a) wild beast + -ālis -al1