Alexander McQueen F/W 09.10 Paris

[Josephjang]

that last dress fulfills my swan lake fantasy!!!!!!

 

[helmut.newton]

I think I'm going to have to agree with you to an extent here. Fall/ Winter 2006 is still my favorite McQueen collection. It was poetic, heartbreakingly beautiful, quiet - while still speaking volumes. It was a masterpiece, as far as I'm concerned.

Since about FW 07, I too, feel as though his collections have lost that 'effortlessness' that all of my favorite McQueen collections possess. That's not to say he hasn't produced great collections since...it's just missing the elegance. And by elegance, no, I don't mean a polished, upper East Side sophisticate...by elegance I mean there was just a certian ease about his collections. Ease, in that, nothing felt forced or contrived.

This collection, while I like a lot about it, and there are several pieces I LOVE, it's maybe a bit too loud? For me, while McQueen has always been, for the most part, a pretty in your face designer...what he has had to say with his clothes was never yelled, it was always whispered (the presentations, on the other hand, were ofter very brash, but the clothes always possesed a delicacy, despite the brutality and torture they often conveyed). Some might disagree, but I stand by this assertion.

I don't know...while most of this collection reads McQueen, the impact of it all doesn't seem quite right. Here are some examples of what I mean.
FW 09 vs. FW 00
Both oversized, chunky knit pieces with an almost animalistic savageness...but the most current piece seems much heavier. The FW 00 piece looks so docile yet savage...like a lamb and a lion mixed.

FW 09 vs. FW 04
Both quilted, multicolored leather (?) jackets. The most recent piece is garish in both color and pattern, but the older piece is much more quiet and subdued yet elicits a stronger emotion...it has an almost clinical and inhuman elegance.

FW 09 vs. FW 06
Both feathered, ruffled evening gowns. While I consider both beautiful and impressive, the FW 09 piece piece looks a bit contrived because of the volume...whereas the FW 06 dress is so delicate and so fragile that it almost breaks your heart. I don't get that same emotion from the FW 09 dress.


I almost want McQueen to cut back on his theatrics and just make great, emotional clothes again. Tortured, painful, romantic, delicate, stunning clothes.
(catwalking.com/ firstview.com/ style.com)

Yes, I completely agree with what you're saying and I feel the same way!

And like it or not people, but without those "everyday ladies" - McQueen would cease to exist. It's those ladies who keep McQueen afloat! (He only started to make profit in 2007/2008!).

Besides, the genius of McQueen lies in the fact that he can navigate between the theatrical and the wearable so dynamically and so effortlessly. Thats why Fall 2006, Spring 2007 etc were his best shows. They were full of drama and theatrics, but the clothes were always the focal point.

Fashion is a business and it needs rich women/men to function. I mean, I'm all for the theatrics, but it has to come back down to reality in order to really work. And McQueen can get a little pretentious sometimes when he floats too far up away from reality; as he did with this collection. It's too many ideas too fast and therefore it creates this sense of chaos. And this is the first time I have thought to myself (of a McQueen collection) "there is just too much".

This just had too many ideas crammed into one collection and on top of that he put the whole Leigh Bowery aesthetic, which only added to the chaos.

With this I keep thinking the McQueen team said to themselves "Let's create a spectacle" instead of "Let's create some brilliant clothes".

Ultimately the theatrics of this show by far outweighed the collection itself, and for this sole reason, I think this collection fails.

 

[dior_couture1245]

style.com review

PARIS, March 10, 2009
By Sarah Mower

Alexander McQueen may be the last designer standing who is brave or foolhardy enough to present a collection that is an unadulterated piece of hard and ballsy showmanship. The heated arguments that broke out afterward were testament to that. There were those who found his picture of women with sex-doll lips and sometimes painfully theatrical costumes ugly and misogynistic. Others—mainly young spectators who haven't been thrilled by the season's many sensible pitches to middle-aged working women—were energized by the sheer spectacle, as well as the couture-level drama in the execution of the clothes.

It was certainly meant as a last-stand fin de siècle blast against the predicament in which fashion, and possibly consumerism as a whole, finds itself. The set was a scrap heap of debris from the stages of McQueen's own past shows, surrounded by a shattered glass runway. The clothes were, for the most part, high-drama satires of twentieth-century landmark fashion: parodies of Christian Dior houndstooth New Look and Chanel tweed suits, moving through harsh orange and black harlequinade looks to revisited showstoppers from McQueen's own archive.

The romantic side of McQueen's character, which rises intermittently in deliriously beautiful shows like his recent tribute to the Victorian empire, was emphatically in abeyance. This is a designer who has drawn so much poetry out of the past, yet this time his backward look appeared to be in something like anger, defiance, or possibly gallows humor. Some of the pieces, like a couple of swag-sided coats, seemed to be made of trash bags, accessorized with aluminum cans wrapped in plastic as headgear.

Nevertheless, however frustrated McQueen may be by the state of commercial fashion, he was not really in absurdist rip-it-up mode. Whatever else is gnawing him, this is a man who will never compromise on construction and craftsmanship. This season he'd noticeably forgone his typical carapace corsetry, making for slightly easier shapes, like boxy jackets, airy gazar dresses, and a fringed dogtooth sheath. For McQueen's faithful, there were also fiercely tailored coats, nipped in the waist and picking up on biker quilted leather and big-shouldered silhouettes. Evening-wise—sans the drag-queen makeup—there was a slim, black paillette homage-to-YSL wrapover dress with a red-lined hood that would stand up as elegant in any company.

Ultimately, for all the feathered and sculpted showpieces that must have taken hundreds of seamstress-hours to perfect, this was a McQueen collection that didn't push fashion anywhere new. Yet that seemed to be exactly one of the things he was pointing to: the state of a collapsed economy that doesn't know how to move forward.

 

[Nixon058]

i just died and went to fashion heaven.

 

[simons]

aren't fashion shows about the show? the theatrics? most of the clothes are not even produced for retail. the show is to present a theme, an idea, a fantasy of inspiration of this season's collection. non?

 

[elle_gb]

It's very beautiful like the same old day. But it's also really hard to wear.

 

[anik]

The collection is absolutely fantastic!The black mermaid gown is stunning!

 

[Zazie]

Although I find this visually stunning, I asbsolutely HATE it when designers show couture designs during the RTW seasons.

I very much concur!

It's an easy way out...max out the drama to earn applause. Most of this is designed for glitzy glam red carpet events, somewhat like the Givenchy show. Nothing in this says Ready-To-Wear, how many of us are Mermaids in real life, unless one works as an MC in a Las Vegas show.

I also find it ironic to make a statement about insane consumerism while sending out a collection that depends very much on insane consumerism to drive sales.

 

[zacatecas570]

some things are great, but he do the same that Burberry, the same of Pre-Fall, nothing new!...someone needs REHAB now!!!!..

 

[lamies022]

Stunning, simply stunning. I LOVE the pieces where the houndstooth evolves into the bird print and those final looks are truly awe-inspiring.
Also I think a true mark of a good collection is when the clothes are so intriguing that you find yourself not distracted by the models, or even the set but by the sheer intricacy of each and every piece.

 

[Zazie]

Right on, ElectricAlyce. I'm sick of hearing of these 'normal women', who apparently exist to suck the joy straight out of the heart of the universe. Too many designers spend too much of their time thinking about 'normal women'; we're practically slowing to a crawl.

 

[kiddokiddo]

Bravo to Lee McQueen who really went there to push boundaries and create dreams in these "sensible, safe and frugal" fashion times. His effort and motive is immensely admirable My fav is the houndstooth segment, so beautiful!!!!, it reminded me of my fav Yohji Yamamoto "hounstooth" collection in early 00's but with his own silhouettes and controls. Everything's perfect and the sense of nostalgia is fantastic

 

[educo]

Blissfully INSANE, like something out of a nightmare that you want to live through to the end.

 

[Josephjang]

just realised that the texture of long coat that was styled with the mermaid gown at the end looks like a bubble wrapper! amazing!!

 

[xhommex]

Collection is beautiful but the make up looks like it was inspired from joker from dark knight

 

[aaronmangsat]

this is why i like McQ!

 

[sqekcx]

Wow, this is certainly his best show in a while. I love the setting and the make-up, they are just captivating. And the clothes are fabulous too, I absolutely adore that white feather dress.
Although there are some pieces that I would definitely love him to throw them away. Some of the prints make the models look really silly. And I just dont understand why he chose leggings with the same prints as the dress.
Also I agree about the lost of 'efortless-ness' in his recent collections. In the past EVERY piece in his collection was mesmerisng. They all scream 'McQ'. But in the recent collections, you really have to see the whole collection, or at least an amount of pieces, so that you can actually feel the greatness of his show.

 

[Street_a_Licious]

i guess he can splurge around a bit with showpieces, after his huge access with the McQ for Target line... i mean, those t-shirts must have TOTALLY paid for all that.

 

[lady stardust]

the colors..black and red..magnificent
that's all i can say

 

[fincher]

it can´t be described by words... fascinating!