Alexander McQueen was a designer who could shake the fashion industry to the very core. “McQueen never wants his audience entirely relaxed”, one journalist noted of his collections and his theatrical catwalk shows. It was in February 2010 that Alexander McQueen unexpectedly died, leaving a shockwave throughout the industry. Even in death the audience couldn’t entirely relax.
A huge task now fell to McQueen’s right hand lady, Sarah Burton, to take charge and to take over the designer brand. She is someone who has worked with Alexander from the very beginning and was the perfect choice to take over.
Sarah Burton’s biggest challenge was the Spring/Summer 2011 collection, this was her first catwalk show and as well as her first collection.
While McQueen’s 2001 show was a theatrical spectacle, an epic dark hellish show that would transport you, this time around the show was a lighter, earthly affair, stripped back to basics. Even the floorboards had grass emerging between them. It had a natural atmosphere.
As the first model strutted down the catwalk to the sound of a rock balled, a harmony of a white outfit blended with a white tail jacket and a ruffle shirt. Long plaited hair completed the look with natural make up.
The show then progressed into a more familiar ground, a sense of deja vu. Silhouettes were decorated in what was described as poetic beauty. Sarah reinvented the poetic beauty look and gave it an entire new earthy pagan quality. High necks were decorated with cut out shoulders and flare skirts, an explosion of colours, a dazzling sight that held the audience’s attention.
A black military jacket adorned with gold leaves with a black short skirt. A black-laced suit jacket with laced Capri trousers, finishing the look with a necklace chain. A White ruffle on the top half of an epic dress, which exposed the leg while leaving white fabric trailing being the model. An ice queen in the middle of an epic Narnia story. A fiery blast of colours, rich golden fire adorned a V necked dress with an epic dark burnt out brown flame.
The woman of this Alexander McQueen was instantly refreshed and reinvented, no longer is she a woman of a harder dark nature, but an earthy gentle nature.
Selma Hayek described the clothes as a being narrative, “every piece has a story of its own”.
It was easily evidence that the new reinvented Alexander McQueen collection has now a womanly touch; Sarah Burton was successful in putting on her stamp while not losing the flavour and the creditability of the original collection.
This was very much an Alexander McQueen collection. I’m sure he smiling down on Sarah and saying well done.
