Alexander McQueen S/S 2012 Paris

[FelipeV]

This is just half of what McQueen used to be. I used to think Burton was the only one for the job and yes, she's making a great job, but she needs to go far away, Alexander McQueen is more than a beautiful craftmanship, is about breaking the limits. I can see the drama, but somehow is not enough.

McQueen said "I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists. I have to force people to look at things" Sarah is just offering beauty.

 

[saeda]

McQueen was a disturbed man. He obviously had suicidal thoughts. Burton probably doesn't have manic depression. Ever think that's why he wanted her around? Do you think he would want her to be constantly depressed and anxious like he obviously was? It really disturbs me how much we romanticize McQueen's deep and utter sadness, and quickly dismiss Burton's optimistic feel.

She has very little time to work as the head designer. To me this is her trying to communicate something to us, and perhaps hoping that McQueen can hear her somewhere. She took his dark, dramatic post-apocalyptic sea theme and turned Cthulhu into Venus.

It's really a beautiful show, and I can read into it all day and see beautiful meaning and a story. It's not Lee, but it's someone who obviously loved him.

 

[FelipeV]

Burton doesn't need to be a tormented mind to make something darker and give us a great dramatic show like McQueen did. Anyway, here's an amazing video of Sarah B. talking with Cathy Horyn about the collection in McQueen's showroom.

Diving for McQueen
Fashion Critic Cathy Horyn Enters the Folds of Sarah Burton's Spring 2012 McQueen Collection
http://www.nowness.com/day/2011/10/26/1691/diving-for-mcqueen

 

[Crying Diamonds]

^ No, I really don't. I mean I suppose those fully masked pieces are kind of dark in a way, but other than that this is fairly light.

Yes exactly!
I've just watched the show and I stick by what I posted previously - Burton is doing nothing to McQueen.
Sarah Burton likes to concentrate on fiddly details seen in such things as awkward drape around an armhole and those cobweb-like masks, (what is with her obsession with covering the head? There must be something Freud has to say about that..) both of which were barely noticeable - these designs for Alexander McQueen the statement maker.
Why doesn't she drape the dresses instead of the weird armholes? Sort of like, how McQueen used to do everything.
It feels as if she doesn't know what to do and the pressure is on the design the most savagely beautiful show in Paris, so she gets the idea (from the archives) of full head masks and she sticks to that one idea without exploring anything else. She then gets some over-designed shoes and makes sure everything is over embellished to make up for the lack of experimentation with cut.
The second half of the collection is a string of very simply cut evening gowns that are extremely heavily embellished - of course some of the embellishments are gorgeous, but it's just a basic dress - McQueen didn't need this much embellishment because he had the fabric and the unique cut.
If we put all of this aside, I imagine that sales have sky-rocketed at the house, completely thanks to Burton feminising everything and curving every sharp edge McQueen made.