Happy belated birthday to Alexander McQueen. Born on March 17th, 1969, he would have turned 51 yesterday.
Being one who never halts to flourish, McQueen was always known for implementing new technology into his lavish, extravagant fashion shows, while storming the runways with wide eye, titillated horror effects as psychological themes crop up time and again. The reference points in his collections, deliberately twisted and severe, built an emotional resonance with his audience.
From exploding onto the international fashion scene with subversive designs like the controversial Highland Rape collection of 1995, to staging fashion shows inspired by Hitchcock heroines, mental asylums, and ‘Lord Of The Flies’ by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding at Paris Fashion Week in 2001, the permutations were as endless as they were ghastly, masochistic, yet exquisitely astonishing.
Regarded by nicknames such as “l'enfant terrible” or “the hooligan of English fashion”, the innovative designer once said, “I just want to be a wallflower. Nondescript. Just not anything, I don't want to see me.”
More than a year after his death, the Metropolitan Museum of Art paid tribute to McQueen with a posthumous exhibition of his collections entitled ‘Savage Beauty’. In light of his birthday, BAZAAR compiled some of the showcased works of the event.
Pictures via Met Museum, Getty Images
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