This definitive publication on Alexander McQueen (1969–2010) invites you into the creative mind and world of one of Britain’s most brilliant, daring, and provocative designers, and the many themes and references that shaped his visionary fashion collections.

A truly comprehensive study, this catalogue is the first in-depth look at McQueen and explores key themes of the exhibition — tailoring, gothic, primitivism, naturalism, and futurism. The book also features previously unseen material as well as groundbreaking essays and feature spreads by multiple authors and leading fashion commentators. This kaleidoscopic approach explores themes central to the designer’s work and his collections, such as the psychology of fashion, natural history, the theatre and spectacle of his shows, and the key creative collaborators during McQueen’s lifetime.

Alexander McQueen also offers an encyclopedic survey of McQueen’s catwalk collections, illustrated with striking images by leading fashion photographers, and specially commissioned photographs that capture the breathtaking skill of his designs and awesome theatricality of his shows.

About the Author:

Claire Wilcox is senior curator of the Furniture, Textiles and Fashion department at the V&A and lecturer at the London College of Fashion.

Arguably the most influential, imaginative, and provocative designer of his generation, Alexander McQueen both challenged and expanded fashion conventions to express ideas about race, class, sexuality, religion, and the environment.

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty examines the full breadth of the designer’s career, from the start of his fledgling label to the triumphs of his own world-renowned London house. It features his most iconic and radical designs, revealing how McQueen adapted and combined the fundamentals of Savile Row tailoring, the specialized techniques of haute couture, and technological innovation to achieve his distinctive aesthetic. It also focuses on the highly sophisticated narrative structures underpinning his collections and extravagant runway presentations, with their echoes of avant-garde installation and performance art.

Published to coincide with an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art organized by The Costume Institute, this stunning book includes a preface by Andrew Bolton; an introduction by Susannah Frankel; an interview by Tim Blanks with Sarah Burton, creative director of the house of Alexander McQueen; illuminating quotes from the designer himself; provocative and captivating new photography by renowned photographer Sølve Sundsbø; and a lenticular cover by Gary James McQueen.

About the Author

Andrew Bolton is Curator of The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tim Blanks is contributing editor of Style.com and Susannah Frankel is fashion editor of The Independent newspaper.

Vogue about the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty Exhibition

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In Gods and Kings Dana Thomas, author of Deluxe, tells the story of how John Galliano and Alexander McQueen changed the face of fashion

In the first decade of the 21st century the fashion world was dominated by two different but equally successful and turbulent figures. Within twelve months, Alexander McQueen had committed suicide, and John Galliano had professionally imploded. Who was to blame? And how was fashion changed by their rise and fall? Spanning the 80s, 90s and noughties, Gods and Kings tells the story of these two charismatic figures and times of great change in the world of fashion, from London's raucous art and club scene to the old-world glamour of Parisian couture, and reveals the machinations of this notoriously secretive industry.

About the Author:

Dana Thomas has written for The New York Times magazine, the New Yorker, WSJ, the Financial Times, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and was the European editor of Condé Nast Portfolio. She is a contributing editor for T: The New York Times Style magazine, and the author of The New York Times bestseller, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre. She lives in Paris.

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Пролистать книгу Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano на Google Books

A striking tribute to Alexander McQueen’s stunning collections, revealing photographs that were, until now, one of fashion’s best-kept secrets

Alexander McQueen has grasped the public's imagination like few other fashion designers before him, with exhibitions dedicated to his work continuing to attract record visitor numbers.

Almost 500,000 people visited the V&A's 2015 Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition, making it the most popular in the museum s history. Opening with a brief essay on the designer's work, Alexander McQueen: Unseen unfolds chronologically.

Each collection is introduced by a concise text by Claire Wilcox, one of the foremost experts on the McQueen's work, revisiting the designer's most iconic creations across his entire career and revealing previously unseen behind-the-scenes moments that capture models, hairdressers, stylists, make-up artists and Alexander McQueen himself at their most candid and creative.

Robert Fairer's stunning and high-energy photographs, all previously unpublished, capture the glamour, grit and spirit that made McQueen's flamboyant shows unique. A treasure-trove of inspiration, they make this publication a must-have reference for fashion and photography lovers alike.

In Gods and Kings Dana Thomas, author of Deluxe, tells the story of how John Galliano and Alexander McQueen changed the face of fashion

In the first decade of the 21st century the fashion world was dominated by two different but equally successful and turbulent figures. Within twelve months, Alexander McQueen had committed suicide, and John Galliano had professionally imploded. Who was to blame? And how was fashion changed by their rise and fall? Spanning the 80s, 90s and noughties, Gods and Kings tells the story of these two charismatic figures and times of great change in the world of fashion, from London's raucous art and club scene to the old-world glamour of Parisian couture, and reveals the machinations of this notoriously secretive industry.

About the Author:

Dana Thomas has written for The New York Times magazine, the New Yorker, WSJ, the Financial Times, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and was the European editor of Condé Nast Portfolio. She is a contributing editor for T: The New York Times Style magazine, and the author of The New York Times bestseller, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre. She lives in Paris.

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Пролистать книгу Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano на Google Books

A striking tribute to Alexander McQueen’s stunning collections, revealing photographs that were, until now, one of fashion’s best-kept secrets

Alexander McQueen has grasped the public's imagination like few other fashion designers before him, with exhibitions dedicated to his work continuing to attract record visitor numbers.

Almost 500,000 people visited the V&A's 2015 Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition, making it the most popular in the museum s history. Opening with a brief essay on the designer's work, Alexander McQueen: Unseen unfolds chronologically.

Each collection is introduced by a concise text by Claire Wilcox, one of the foremost experts on the McQueen's work, revisiting the designer's most iconic creations across his entire career and revealing previously unseen behind-the-scenes moments that capture models, hairdressers, stylists, make-up artists and Alexander McQueen himself at their most candid and creative.

Robert Fairer's stunning and high-energy photographs, all previously unpublished, capture the glamour, grit and spirit that made McQueen's flamboyant shows unique. A treasure-trove of inspiration, they make this publication a must-have reference for fashion and photography lovers alike.

Magnificently illustrated with some of McQueen's most riveting designs, this book illuminates the struggles of a man who dared to defy accepted fashion norms and give the world a new sense of grandeur From conflicted gay teenager and aggressive and remote young man, through to his lonely suicide, this book charts Alexander McQueen's ascent to couturier par excellence, highlighting his spectacular shows and showing how his confrontational, streetwise manner was simply a shield that protected and masked a very shy, sensitive, and insecure man who hailed from the wrong side of the high fashion tracks.

McQueen's talent is now globally acknowledged to have been unmatched in contemporary haute couture, and this book distills from the lavish sweep of his colors, designs, fabrics, and forward-driving concepts the essence of a man on a quest for beauty and his own contentment. In casting the spotlight on the stark contrast between catwalk glamour and his upbringing and personal demons, the book shows how his talent both nourished and destroyed him. It takes us from the vicious glare of the walkway where he was feted by the wealthy and famous as an innovative artist to behind the glamour.

There, defiance delineated a life that was hurled into inescapable depression by the deaths, first of his great friend and supporter Isabella Blow and then by his mother.

About the Author:

Michael A. O'Neill has written scripts for, produced, and narrated historical documentaries, which have been shown on the Discovery Channel and the History Channel.

Alexander (Lee) McQueen was - for the 15 years that he stood at its helm - British fashion's most significant figure.

Alexander McQueen extraordinary career, which took him from humble beginnings as an apprentice on Savile Row to the creative directorship of his own global brand, is a story of hard work, ambition and visionary brilliance.

Leading photographers such as Mario Testino and Corinne Day photographed his stunning designs for Vogue, and through them, Alexander McQueen's career is presented - from the controversy of his early shows to the elegiac perfection of his last - with a particular emphasis on the evolution of his signature style: immaculate tailoring, slashed fabric, historical references and beauty in the macabre.

The book shows that McQueen's own ambition was fully realised: 'I want to be the purveyor of a certain silhouette or a way of cutting so that, when I'm dead and gone, people will know that the Twenty-first Century was started by Alexander McQueen'.

Vogue, the international fashion bible, has charted the careers of designers through the decades. Its unique archive of photographs, taken by the leading photographers of the day from Cecil Beaton to Mario Testino, and original illustrations, together with its stable of highly respected fashion writers, make Vogue the most authoritative and prestigious source of reference on fashion. With a circulation of over 160,000 and a readership of over 1,400,000, no brand is better positioned to present a library on the great fashion designers of the modern age.

London 1996: Alexander McQueen took over the Hawksmoor masterpiece Christ Church in Londons East End for what was quite possibly the greatest fashion show on Earth. A candle-lit, cruciform catwalk with a backdrop of stained-glass windows set the tone for an extraordinary collection. Lace sat against chiffon and rubbed shoulders with couture and club-culture clothing and digital print. Dante was the seminal collection that would resonate throughout Alexander McQueen's career.

This book features unique photographs shot behind the scenes, with raw, unseen pictures of the designer, models and clothes. The fashion creatives who worked with McQueen to make the show such a success recall this pivotal time in the designer's career and reflect on what made Dante truly groundbreaking. Newly created imagery of clothes shown on the catwalk gives an insight into why this collection was so special.

About the authors:

Kent Baker lives in London and New York. He was championed by Terry Jones from i-D magazine, jump-starting collaborations with British Vogue, 10 Magazine and Russian Vogue. 
Melanie Rickey is a writer, editor and consultant. She writes for the Guardian and Grazia, and shares her expert fashion knowledge on her Fashion Editor at Large website.

When Alexander McQueen committed suicide in February 2010, aged just 40, a shocked world mourned the loss of its most visionary fashion designer.

McQueen had risen from humble beginnings as the youngest child of an East London taxi driver to scale the heights of fame, fortune and glamour. He designed clothes for the world's most beautiful women including Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. In business, he created a multi-million-pound luxury brand that became a favourite with both celebrities and royalty, most famously the Duchess of Cambridge who wore a McQueen dress on her wedding day.

But behind the confident facade and bad-boy image, lay a sensitive soul who struggled to survive in the ruthless world of fashion. As the pressures of work intensified, so McQueen became increasingly dependent on the drugs that contributed to his tragic end. His failure to find lasting love with a string of boyfriends only added to his despair. And then there were the dark secrets that haunted his sleep…

A modern-day fairy tale infused with the darkness of a Greek tragedy, this book will tell the sensational story of McQueen's rise from his hard East London upbringing to the hedonistic world of fashion. Those closest to the designer - his family, friends and lovers - have spoken for the first time about the man they knew, a fragmented and insecure individual, a lost boy who battled to gain entry into a world that ultimately destroyed him.

Alexander McQueen: Evolution is the story of the designer's thirty-five runway shows and the genius behind them.

From Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims, his 1992 graduate collection, to Plato's Atlantis, the last show before his death in 2010, Lee Alexander McQueen was as celebrated for the meticulous craftsmanship and stunning originality of his designs as he was notorious for his theatrical ― and often controversial ― runway shows.

Taking his inspiration from sources as diverse as his own Scottish ancestry, Alfred Hitchcock movies and Yoruba mythology, McQueen brought together exquisite tailoring and avant-garde performance art. Combining gripping narrative and vivid photography with quotes from the designer and those who knew him best, this book brings each of the designer’s runway shows to life, including a look at the pieces and inspiration behind Angels and Demons, the show he was working on before his untimely death.

 This is the definitive, immersive account of a unique career and a fitting tribute to the enfant terrible of British fashion.

"I thought I knew almost everything about the history of fashion until I met Kerry Taylor. The inside-out knowledge she has of garments will inspire both students and designers to look at fashion with fresh eyes." - Sarah Mower, US Vogue

"This beautiful book by Kerry Taylor - the go-to woman for vintage and antique couture - is a treat for collectors and fashion lovers alike." - The Wall Street Journal

"Whatever my question about vintage, Kerry Taylor has the answer. Her expertise, knowledge and historical anecdotes have raised the level of interest in this subject hugely." -Lisa Armstrong, Daily Telegraph

Named one of Glamour Magazine's "Must-Read Style Books"!

Profiled by Vogue and The New York Times and courted by style icons with wardrobes to sell and top designers in search of inspiration, Kerry Taylor is one of the world's leading experts on vintage fashion and couture. In this lavishly illustrated book, Kerry tells the story of a century of fashion through the work of its key design talents and the memorable women who have worn their creations. All the fashion stars are here from Poiret to McQueen via Lanvin, Chanel, Schiaparelli, Madame Grès, Dior, Balenciaga, Mary Quant, Ossie Clark, Vivienne Westwood, Alaïa, and Margiela. For each designer Kerry explores their career through a dazzling range of clothes and accessories, explaining what makes each item so desirable to the collector or wearer of vintage fashion.

Each chapter includes at least one 'style icon' whose relationship with fashion has had a lasting impact, including Baba D'Erlanger, Lauren Bacall, Grace Kelly, Catherine Deneuve, Paloma Picasso and Kate Moss. Illustrated with a mix of gorgeous fashion photography plus images from Kerry's own astonishing archive, this book is set to become an invaluable guide for collectors of vintage (whatever their budget) and all those who love fashion.

Contents includes...

Foreword by Hubert de Givenchy
Prologue by Christopher Kane
1900s
Paul Poiret
Lucile
Mariano Fortuny
1920s
Jean Patou
Jeanne Lanvin
Chanel in the Twenties
1930s
Elsa Schiaparelli
Style Icon Wallis Simpson
Madeleine Vionnet - The Architect of Couture
1940s
The effects of War on Fashion in Europe
American Fashion in the Forties
Christian Dior - The Saviour of French Haute Couture
1950s
Pierre Balmain
Cristóbal Balenciaga - The Master
Style Icon Grace Kelly
1960s
Mary Quant
Hubert de Givenchy 
Style Icon Audrey Hepburn
1970s
Yves Saint Laurent in the Seventies
Zandra Rhodes
Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren
1980s
Italian Masters
Azzedine Alaïa
John Galliano
1990s
The New Romantics
Thierry Mugler
Style Icon Kate Moss
2000s
Later McQueen
Style Icon Daphne Guinness
Collecting Vintage
Taking Care of your Collection

A retrospective of Lee's groundbreaking work and a salute to his artistry, the book showcases the wonderful world of McQueen, from his graduate collection at Central Saint Martins to his latest designs created just days before his untimely death, and finally his ideas carried on through Sarah Burton, including the royal wedding dress.

Celebrating his work and vision, "Alexander McQueen: Fashion Visionary" traces the designer's ascent to becoming one of the world's most respected couturiers - a story marked by celebrity friendships, unrestrained creativity, theatrical fashion shows and, ultimately, tragedy. The chronological organization allows the reader to understand McQueen's most seminal collections and the progression and underlying themes of his ideas.

This book is dedicated to McQueen's work and talent, and exhibits not simply visually electrifying fashion images, but also reveals the deep reservoir of the designer's imagination.

From Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims, his 1992 graduate collection, to Plato's Atlantis, the last show before his death in 2010, Lee Alexander McQueen was as celebrated for the exquisite tailoring, meticulous craftsmanship, and stunning originality of his designs as he was notorious for his theatrical - and often controversial - runway shows.

McQueen found inspiration for his avant-garde collections everywhere: his Scottish ancestry, Alfred Hitchcock movies, Yoruba mythology, the destruction of the environment - even the fashion industry itself. Whatever his inspiration, however, McQueen’s concept for his runway show came first and was crucial to the development of the collection.

Every show had a narrative and was staged with his characteristic dramatic flair. Highland Rape featured disheveled models smeared with “blood” staggering down the runway in town clothes. In Scanners, two robots sprayed paint on a model trapped on a spinning platform. In Widows of Culloden, a hologram of supermodel Kate Moss held center stage.

Other McQueen shows staged models walking through water, drifting snowflakes, rain, and wind tunnels; pole-dancing in garish makeup at a carnival, playing living pieces in a bizarre chess game, and performing with trained dancers in a Depression-era-style marathon.

Illustrated throughout with stunning photography and liberally sprinkled with quotations from McQueen and those who knew him best, Alexander McQueen: Evolution is the story of the designer’s thirty-five runway shows and the genius behind them.

Lee Alexander McQueen (1969–2010), whose design combined visionary aesthetics, emotional power, and extraordinary craft, was known for staging provocative shows that were as much performances as venues to display his couture creations. Charged with energy, informed by history and culture, and filled with fresh concepts, McQueen’s shows have become legends not only of fashion but also of art. Anne Deniau was the only photographer allowed backstage by McQueen for 13 years, beginning in September 1997 and ending with the final show in March 2010. She captured McQueen working with his close circle of collaborators - including designer Sarah Burton, milliner Philip Treacy, jewelry designer Shaun Leane, and model Kate Moss - to create his meticulously produced spectacles. Her book offers an inspiring homage, through the art of photography, to the work of a great artist.