Alexander McQueen S/S 2010

[droogist]

OMG, our chalayan jackets have activated!

[droogist]

^ It's a joke only laika's likely to get, sorry.

[droogist]

it seems like at the heart of a lot of debates is this idea of 'costumes' or something being 'unwearable' and it gets broached a lot with Willhelm (always back to willhelm) which is what you seem to be getting at with McQueen in terms of outlandish aesthetics - on another level it strikes me that what he creates are, even if they're sold, basically 'the costumes of the rich' since in their cost and function they're barely even clothes anymore than they are one-time show off accessories.

It makes me wonder if the 'collections' need to be considered more like haute couture since his shows obviously don't show any of what sells to normal people, as well - which to me makes the gushing even more silly since I think there are people doing it better.

it seems like he's given so much credit because he's being considered in the wrong 'class' of designer, perhaps? sure he's going to look fantastic when he's showing along people who show what they're selling - innovative and artistic but saleable clothing.

Definitely. I think this has a lot to do with why it's so difficult to make people understand one's indifference to McQueen. For me, it's not enough that a collection be beautiful - it has to be relevant.

For the record, I think this collection is one of his best. As andrew pointed out above, the prints were very thoughtfully integrated with the design, and they look great - all in all, it's a good collection with a lot of nice frocks. But that's as far as I'll go...

[laika]

love it, droogist.

we will only use our powers for good.

[laika]

here's most of Sarah Mower's review, if anyone's interested...
i can't say she seems terribly excited by this either.

Seen from on the spot, it was a big-budget production, for sure. There was a sparkling, illuminated runway in which two sinister, robotic movie cameras on gigantic black booms ran back and forth, while a screen played Knight's video of Raquel Zimmermann, lying on sand, naked, with snakes writhing across her body.

Then the models came out, dressed in short, reptile-patterned, digitally printed dresses, their gangly legs sunk in grotesque shoes that looked like the armored heads of a fantastical breed of antediluvian sea monster. McQueen, according to an internal logic detailed in a press release, was casting an apocalyptic forecast of the future ecological meltdown of the world: Humankind is made up of creatures that evolved from the sea, and we may be heading back to an underwater future as the ice cap dissolves.

The consequences, in fashion terms? Well, it was a one-note, unmissable formula of the kind several other designers have decided is the way to communicate this season. McQueen's message throughout was essentially sunk into the short dress—a steady development of his engineered sea-reptile prints, worked into a nipped-waist, belled-skirt silhouette. The colors—first green and brown, moving to aqua and blue—were exceptionally executed and swagged, and molded across panniered structures. Each dress was a work of computer-generated art crossbred with McQueen's couture-based signature cut.

In a section in which it looked as if McQueen was envisaging a biological hybridization of women with sea mammals, there were trousers whose bulbous flanks mimicked the skin of sharks or dolphins. A reminder of his taste in Savile Row tailoring came via a few looks in which formfitting gray men's fabric was cut away to reveal "portholes" filled with turquoise (an effect akin to the view from a glass-bottomed boat). Finally, then? Although there was nothing to show McQueen breaking out from his set design mold, the way he's embracing new computer technologies and the drama of the moving image puts him at the leading edge of change.

[Heirloom]

Just wanted to show what this looks like on "normal" people next to Amanda Lepore. Daphne Guinness is GORGEOUS, and she does this justice. Very well styled. Love the nude with the blue and the crazy contact lenses.

[endtroducing]

- I just wanted to add that seeing the prints in person changes things a bit... (Well, in fairness, it did for me).
I had no idea how complex and thoughtfully constructed the actual prints were; they are built from hundreds of different images: Preying Mantis claws, Jellyfish, Hubble photographs of galaxies, Honeybees, all the reptile (mostly different snakes) imagery...etc. And each is structured into the garment to add shape and depth to the anatomical form of the wearer...
Really fantastic stuff...
This is coupled with really innovate construction techniques...
Silk chiffon woven seamlessly into crepe satin?
Wow...
I think this collection is a masterwork; the execution (in my estimation) removes it from being a collection of "just short dresses" as the review above glibly suggests. McQueen is simply amazing and this collection (as did the last one) speaks to the fact that a true artist is at work behind all the skull scarves.

m.

[Faust]

Just wanted to show what this looks like on "normal" people next to Amanda Lepore. Daphne Guinness is GORGEOUS, and she does this justice. Very well styled. Love the nude with the blue and the crazy contact lenses.

She looks retarded in those shoes. The shoes are a fail outside of the show.

[Heirloom]

Well, without the shoes she'd just look chic. With them she's a demon. which I love.

[XenoX101]

Yeah I think with the level of eccentricity this collection brings wearing more than one piece at a time becomes too theatrical, which really only works on runway.

Either different shoes or a simpler dress + maybe different stockings would have greatly improved the above look imo.

I think she/her stylists did a fantastic job of hair and make-up though.

[Heirloom]

Life is a runway. I ended up ranting about this collection at a bar tonight, borrowing peoples iphones and showing them all the detail shots from style.com.

It's apparently the most amazing collection i've ever seen, and a true work of art. Life is a runway. :D I will make clothes as extravagant for men someday.

edit: i'm druknnnnnn