Sometimes it was on such a level that maybe the fashion audience wasn't the right audience to tell it to, but what audience was right? A visually beautiful tapestry of art that is an expression of Alexander McQueen’s growth from a working class family to creating high couture for the upper echelons of global society. I get more inspiration from the personality of a region than the actual ethnic origin I think it's more important for the evolution of any design.

The first test shots came back with some of the model’s hands and heads edited out and replaced with hardware. and Sabine Rewald, with contributions by Dawn Ades, John Ashbery, Jacques Dupin, John Golding, Lawrence Gowing, William S. Model Raquel Zimmermann appeared on an LED screen, writhing in sand and covered by vibrantly coloured snakes.Goodreads reminded me of it by recommending the exhibition catalogue, perhaps the third good quality recommendation the algorithm has given me in nearly ten years.

Hair was either plaited tight to the head in mounds or sculpted into fin-like peaks, while the contours of models’ faces were distorted with prosthetic enhancements, both features connoting biological adaptation. At the end there is an interview with Sarah Burton, who took over the fashion house after McQueen's tragic death. McQueen used all kinds of materials, commissioning skilled wood carvers, leather workers, prosthetists, glass soecialists, embroiderers and plumassiers (feather workers) to help realise his vision. Camouflage prints of roses, and jacquards depicting moths in green and brown tones, referenced life above the sea; amphibious snake prints suggested a transition to water; and designs in blues and purples incorporated images of ocean creatures, such as stingrays and jellyfish. It also focuses on the highly sophisticated narrative structures underpinning his collections and extravagant runway presentations, with their echoes of avant-garde installation and performance art.I'm so glad I got this, it's a fantastic coffee table book and something that will doubtless fascinate any guest with the holographic cover. Already a highly proficient and inventive tailor, here he learned how to be a fashion designer, drawing inspiration from London’s history, its world-class museums and emerging BritArt scene. Thumbnail images of some of McQueen’s fashion shows give a sense of his creative process and show how he presented his work. Arguably the most influential, imaginative, and provocative designer of his generation, Alexander McQueen both challenged and expanded fashion conventions to express ideas about race, class, sexuality, religion, and the environment. This position was strikingly evident in the exhibition’s 'Cabinet of Curiosities', which focused on atavistic and fetishistic paraphernalia produced by McQueen in collaboration with a number of accessory designers, including the milliner Philip Treacy and the jeweler Shaun Leane.

While most people, by now, will have heard much about the exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, .It took time for London fashion to appreciate the virtuosity and craft of McQueen’s tailoring: the way he could take a giant pair of scissors and, as his colleague Sarah Burton remarked, “create a dress on the spot, embroidery here, fabric there, chop this”. Though not as authoritative as Thomas’s book on McQueen’s place in the world of fashion, Wilson had the benefit of interviews with the designer’s family, which makes his biography the more intimate and affecting of the two.