BEAUTY: Clothing--Alexander McQueen

Sarah Burton's inspiration for this Spring/Summer '15 collection shown at London Collections: Men was the ancient Japanese theatrical art form Kabuki in which actors playing a set of standard characters use face make up to convey personality and position. Of this marvelously graphic collection, the McQueen website says, "An abstracted Kabuki pattern is the dominant and recurring motif featured throughout the collection. It is used all-over, as an asymmetric placement or stripped back to just a single block of colour. There is a play on the scale of three classic menswear fabrics – the Houndstooth, Birdseye and Prince of Wales check, used in combinations as a new type of patchwork or woven as jacquards in the abstracted Kabuki pattern. The construction of suiting has been pared back, either completely free or half-lined and occasionally with a slight shoulder pad to give just enough structure. Silhouettes are oversized or elongated and trousers are cut wide and loose or drop crotched and skinny. The use of trompe l’oeil gives the perception of layering – waistcoats over coats and field jackets or black and white colour block knee high socks to give the effect of leggings worn under shorts."

I can't help but feel that this is absolutely something Alexander McQueen would have gotten around to if he had lived...
It feels fresh, like a palette cleanser.

Below are images of traditional Kabuki make up. Burton translated the swirls, flames, flairs, and flourishes directly...

http://www.alexandermcqueen.com/us/alexandermcqueen