Tuesday, June 14, 2016

BEAUTY: Clothing--Alexander McQueen

Sarah Burton, who took over for Lee Alexander McQueen after his suicide, is on maternity leave so the house did not present a runway show at London Collections: Men for the Spring Summer '17 season. Instead, they showed a lookbook which turned out to be as equally effective since the collection is so stunning.

It must be the Hundredth Monkey moment for fashion so far, because, like Craig Green in Tibet (here), Casely-Hayford in Kashmir (here), and to a lesser degree Astrid Anderson, we find McQueen in the Indian subcontinent. Well, India itself to specific. Harley Hughes, head of McQueen menswear, offered up a brief story to get us started: “A ’60s guy, in London, going off traveling and immersing himself in imperial India.” And while the foundation might be what McQueen does so well--classic, sharp, English tailoring with military touches of uniform braiding--the embellishments are breathtakingly Indian. The absolutely gorgeous shimmery-gold-on-black paisley jacquard, the prints featuring vintage mail post marks from Calcutta, the dense leopard spots, and the gold-bullion embroidery worthy of a Raja paint a subtle portrait of our '60s guy in India. Of course the finishing touch for the look is, like the Casely-Hayford collection, the beautiful jewelry. Yes, including the cheek piercing pieces...which are, of course, clip-ons. No actual models were hurt in the photographing of this collection.




http://www.alexandermcqueen.com/

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