Savage Beauty – Alexander McQueen

If you follow me on Facebook then you’ll know all about my blogging break last week. Now fully up to speed so expect some awesomeness(;-)) this week!

Did you know that Alexander McQueen sewed his own hair into every single item of his first collection? Or that he spent hundreds of hours in the endless fashion archives of the V&A?

I knew that McQueen was from London but had no idea there was such a strong connection between the designer and the museum until my mother went to Latitude (I know, I was seriously impressed) and attended a talk by one of the Savage Beauty curators (Latitude sounds so amazing!!). Apart from this and a passing knowledge of his shows I didn’t really know much about Alexander McQueen, just that in my perception, he seemed to be a tortured soul.

Armed with this limited knowledge on a very wet Friday in London I embarked on my journey to see the much anticipated Savage Beauty exhibition at the V&A having secured a ticket in the frenzy of the extra ticket release.

Not much liking the freezing monsoon style rain and resulting soggy feet, my sister and I headed for the warmth and welcome of The Riding House Cafe where we gorged on comfort food and cocktails!

Once the littlest sister had joined us and guzzled more delicious cocktails (would highly recommend the Miami Vice and Karaoke) we headed on to our evening showing of Savage Beauty.

One thing the V&A does superbly well is evening openings. If you have ever been to their Friday Late events that are held on the last Friday of every month, then you’ll know exactly what I mean – DJ, bar, atmosphere-a-plenty (I wrote about my V&A Friday Late night in this post). Feeling pretty pumped we began the show!

Just like each of his shows, the exhibit had a feel of performance art. The first room was pitch black with an eery and deeply emotive video of Alexander McQueen’s face morphing into a skull.

The attention to detail of the display of each piece was totally phenomenal and wholly immersing – jaw dropping headpieces of horns, leather, gems, gold, wind machines, mirrors, lace. All accenting the bizarre beauty of Macqueen’s creations. No wonder the V&A managed to spank £3 million on the exhibit!

Now, my pics are pretty terrible so I’ll only subject you to a couple and the rest are borrowed from the profs.

Kate Moss hologram floating in a cloud of organza – totally hypnotic!  Created using the Victorian parlour trick Pepper’s Ghost.

The pics seriously don’t do this exhibition and McQueen’s pieces justice.

By the time we emerged from the McQueen world we had complete sensory overload. My gosh, there was so much to take in. To really truly take everything on board and fully appreciate the intricate detail we needed another visit and preferably at a quieter time, it was so busy which made taking in all of the splendour of the ‘black room’ very difficult.

Thank goodness the V&A have produced a brilliant accompaniment to the exhibit in the form of this humungous catalogue which has quenched my thirst for more knowledge of the strange and beautiful world of Alexander McQueen.

Did you see the exhibition? What did you think?

xxx