A Year in McQueen

The title says it all. The Alexander McQueen Facebook page posted a collection of Alexander McQueen magazine covers from 2011. From those, I selected 12 covers, marking a year in McQueen.

Thank you for reading my blog!  I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve!!!

and...

May the new year be filled with happiness, love, and peace.

xoxo,

N

Alexander McQueen Women's Pre Spring/Summer 2012 Collection

What do you do to unwind after a long day of work? Aside from the usual things like, reading, TV, working out, cooking, etc, there's one thing that always puts me in a good mood. For someone who adores high fashion, there is nothing more wonderful than staring at the clothes by your favorite designer online, while Keane plays in the background. (If you wanna snicker, you have 5 seconds before I give you a dirty look.)

If you're a reader of this blog (Thanks!), you probably figured that by "my favorite designer," I mean Alexander McQueen. I even have a category called "Alexander McQueen" and if that's not a dead giveaway, I'm not sure what would be.

Women's Pre Spring/Summer 2012 Collection lookbook is just SO gorgeous, you have got to see it for yourself. Good news: Remember that "super-wide belt over a jacket" style that was in about 4-5 years ago?   According to Sarah Burton, it's back! Now I get to wear my belts and totally be in style, or even ahead of style.

Notice how the belt matches with the embellishment on the pockets of the dress? I like how the style is put together, but not so over-the-top matching. Subtle matching says "I'm a classy fashionista," while over-the-top matching screams "fashion rookie."

Animal prints are still in next year! Maybe I should stock up on some leopard and snakeskin prints, since those two are such an "it" material this fall/winter.

Oh my gorgeous. Seriously, whoever first came up with black and gold pairing is a freakin' genius. Wait...it's probably Coco Chanel, right? Anyway, back to this gorgeous evening gown. I love the distressed layered skirt; it's so McQueen. Edgy, yet classy.
 

The cocktail dress version of the above evening gown, I presume. Okay, I'm running out of synonyms for "gorgeous." Fabulous? Beautiful? Well, you get the point.
 

Here, the contrast between the metallic bodice and flowing skirt is perfectly balanced. Giving the dress the tough-and-sweet dual personality that most women have these days. You gotta be a fighter to be absolutely fabulous at what you do, but that doesn't mean that you've given up on your girly side. I feel like this dress represents that duality in a perfect way. Maybe I'm going overly sentimental over a dress, but you know what, I got my blog so I get to interpret it however the way I want. :)

And by the way, yes, I do have a thing for Brit-rock.

xoxo,
N

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

If you adore art and lucky enough to be in the City (by that I mean New York City) sometimes between May 4 and July 31, 2011, I suggest you include the Met in your list of places to go. Here's why. I intentionally used art instead of fashion, because McQueen's work surpasses fashion; it really is a work of art. I won't go into details on what the exhibit is about, because the website does a much better job at it. In short, the exhibit has loads of dresses designed my Lee Alexander himself, and you have to be mad to not go have a look because to quote Barney Stinson, it's Legen-wait for it-dary.

NY Times Fashion&Style ran an article about this exhibit too, and there was this passage that I thought was not the accurate description of McQueen's work.

There are streaks of sadomasochism and misogyny in Mr. McQueen’s work. The concept of using as a model a woman with prosthetic legs or of having a robot squirt paint viciously over a dress still seem discomforting. And Sarah Burton adds a further menacing note when she explains that a robotic Perspex armor-like shell worn by a model in a Givenchy collection designed by Mr. McQueen could have electrocuted the person wearing it.

I have seen most, if not all, of McQueen's work, but I seriously have no idea which collection or dress this passage is referring to as being sadomasochistic and misogynistic. I suppose demanding someone to wear Armadillo heels to walk around the city can be a bit sadomasochistic, but who does that? Not even Lady Gaga walks around the city in that shoes, because if she did that, we would know.

Honestly, this ensemble screams nothing but "I'm gorgeous." To top it, what is wrong with using a model with prosthetic legs? I really have to disagree with the idea that not looking like just another emaciated model is discomforting. I first fell in love with McQueen's work because of its originality and the underlying concept that beauty lives in all shapes and forms. I love that Lee Alexander had women with prosthetic legs model his collection. People don't go on prosthetic legs by choice. You don't choose to be born without a leg or two, be sick, or be injured. I love how Lee Alexander let the world know that these women are not "disabled;" instead, they are very able and beautiful.

I did some reading, and as it turns out, Lee Alexander refused to invite Victoria Beckham (who went as Posh Spice then) to the 1999 collection, because he thought Posh Spice's celeb-status would overshadow the appearance of a model with prosthetic legs. Aimee Mullins, the Paralympic athlete, modeled the hand-carved cherrywood prosthetics designed by Lee Alexander. Seriously, how is this sadomasochistic or misogynistic? I think it's quite the opposite.

As for squirting paints, it's all in good fun, right? The almost-electrocution incident could have been easily avoided if any of those artists had an idea to ask an engineer for a consult. I have no idea exactly what that almost-electrocution dress looks like, but all it really takes is good insulation. Anyway, that's enough of me writing; here are some more of the looks that will be showcased at the exhibit. Enjoy!

All images are taken from here.

So beautiful, don't you think?

xoxo-N

PS: According to British Vogue, this exhibit is the Met's Costume Institute's most popular exhibit ever. Is it just me who keeps thinking, what is Lee Alexander himself was still alive to witness all these?

Alexander McQueen Men's Spring/Summer 2011 Collection

To all of my non-fashion obsessed readers: the next post will be on a movie, just slightly delayed to have my post coincide with the release date.

Ahem.

As someone who has been obsessed with fashion, I have always wondered how men's clothes are being designed. There are just so many ways to reinvent the look with women's clothes, when compared to men's clothes. I am aware that I need to study more on men's styling area, but for the moment, I feel like a lot of the men's collections look very similar to one another. It is such that I was very curious to see how men's collections are being designed and styled by my favorite designer, Alexander McQueen.

I'm always fascinated by the fashion era, genre, or culture at which McQueen draws inspirations. McQueen always takes one style and reinvents with more Brit-rock'n'roll edge while maintaining grace. Sorry for my lack of adjectives, but that is just so. freakin. COOL. In this Men's Spring/Summer 2011 Collection, my "it" item of choice is a jacket.

I love this 20's-ish formalwear inspired jacket paired with an also vintage dress shirt. This look is way hotter than the overdone tuxedo in my book. I mean tuxedo look will always be James Bond-hot, but once in a while, a new formalwear should be introduced. :)

I LOVE this entire ensemble to the point where I would totally wear this. Fashionista 101: Forget the gender deal in fashion; if you like the clothes and can pull it off, wear them. The way I see it, true fashionistas shop at both men's and women's section at the store for a very simple reason. On some occasions, the design that I like only exists in one section and there's no way I'm letting the fact that "the clothes I want are not in my 'gender' section at the store" get in the way of fashion.

Shiny jacket? So futuristically cool and fun! Although, I probably won't be able to pull off this look. Darn. Maybe with some tailoring...

I love this 20's-ish aviator jacket, especially the dark green-brown combo colors. Unlike the shiny jacket above, I bet I can pull this one off...I think.

If you are interested, here's the entire Men's Spring/Summer 2011 Collection (all of the pictures are taken from there) and here's my earlier post on Women's Pre-Spring/Summer 2011 Collection.

xx-N

Alexander McQueen Pre Spring/Summer 2011

As I was going to write this article, someone decided that it would be a great idea to hack Twitter, which happened to be where I kept all the fashion related news articles. Impeccable timing, don't you think? So instead of writing about London Fashion Week, I get to write about my most favorite designer label of all times - Alexander McQueen.

I think the first time I learned about him was when I saw his clothes on Marie Claire fashion spread. Until then, I always had "LOVE!" and "...miss" in every designer collection. No offense, but I can't just love everything and still have a solid style of my own. Then I saw some pieces by Alexander McQueen and I just loved every single one of them. Since then, McQueen has never failed me in terms of originality and gorgeousness. And yes, I do love that crazy stiletto shoes Lady Gaga totally rocked in Bad Romance music video. I'd wear that shoes in a heartbeat! Let's hope that I have enough balance skills to not break a leg. Literally.

I'll totally rock this one day :D

Now, onto Pre Spring/Summer 2011 collection. McQueen likes to use black/red with gold, and for this collection, the main color of choice is black.

 

I'm loving the idea of having a similar look, but have one for cocktail dress and another for eveningwear. You can see how the cocktail dress style is a bit downplayed by using the gold motifs on shoulders only. 

McQueen is also known for having a very theatrical design - and yet be very wearable. It's every girls' (and some guys') dream to wear those crazy-gorgeous dress that you would only see in theater, and somehow McQueen made that dream come true by making the theatrical patterns wearable. LOVE. IT.

Lastly, this eveningwear is my favorite of all. Some of McQueen's looks are inspired by traditional orientalwear - I think this particular look is inspired by kimono - and McQueen adds a flair of originality while maintaining the class that is present in every traditional style. I have to say, that takes serious talent. 

I hope all the fashionistas out there liked this article. I also hope I have enlightened those who are not really into fashion. I disagree with the stereotype where fashion is deemed as a genre for girls and gay dudes. Fashion is a form of art, and everyone should be able to enjoy it! At least, don't be judgmental and hate it without knowing it first... 

xx-N