Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

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Andrew Bolton

The Metropolitan Museum of Art; distributed by Yale University Press , New Haven, CT, 2011, English

Nonfiction, Fashion Design

9.75 x 13.25 inches, hardcover (lenticular cover), 240 pages, 284 color illustrations

ISBN: 9780300169782

Suggested Retail Price: $50.00

From the Publisher. Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010) was one of the most influential, imaginative, and provocative designers of his generation. His clothing both challenged and expanded the conventional parameters of fashion to express ideas about culture, politics, and identity. Rare among designers, McQueen saw beyond clothing’s physical constraints to its ideological and conceptual possibilities, addressing questions related to race, class, gender, religion, sexuality, and the environment.

Featuring the most iconic and radical designs of his prolific career, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty examines the designer’s evolution from the start of his fledgling label, to his years as creative director at Givenchy in Paris, and finally to the collections of his own world-renowned London house. It reveals how McQueen adapted and combined the fundamentals of Savile Row tailoring, the specialized techniques of haute couture—such as lacework, embroidery, and featherwork—and technological innovation to achieve his distinctive aesthetic. It also focuses on the highly sophisticated narrative structures found in McQueen’s collections and in his extravagant runway presentations, which suggested the most avant-garde installation and performance art.

Published on the occasion of an exhibition organized by the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute, this book includes a preface by curator Andrew Bolton; an introduction by Susannah Frankel; an interview with Sarah Burton, creative director of the house of Alexander McQueen, conducted by Tim Blanks; and illuminating commentary from the designer himself. Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty celebrates the astounding creativity and originality of a designer who relentlessly questioned and confronted the requisites of fashion.

On 3 book lists

Julie Lasky

On Julie Lasky’s Notable Books of 2011 list

Like a relic from a saint, this book companion to the astonishing 2011 Metropolitan Museum exhibition is a fragment of a much greater entity. It’s worth having anyway. McQueen’s jagged silhouettes and maniacal feather- or crustacean-encrusted pieces are inexhaustible in their visual interest, and the catalogue lets you study them at leisure, focusing on details like locks of hair sewn into dresses inspired by Jack the Ripper’s victims. Most important, you can read about the doomed enfant terrible who produced them without crowds of gawping museum-goers pressing you to hurry up.

Ed Ng

On Ed Ng’s Book List

One of the most inspiring designers of our time. Some amazing collections in this book.

Cynthia Rowley

On Cynthia Rowley’s Book List

The work of this extraordinary designer deserves to be immortalized.

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