ONCE the news that Savage Beauty - the exhibition on the work of Alexander McQueen - would be arriving at London's Victoria & Albert Museum after a sell-out run at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2011, where it became the Costume Institute's most popular exhibition ever, fashion lovers have wondered what the British version will feature. What might be included that is specific to London? What pieces might have been unearthed or become available since the NY show? How will the changes in curation alter visitors' experiences? And now we know.
A room dedicated to McQueen's years as a fledgling London designer will indeed be added to the original Met line-up, exploring the years that shaped his talent and interests as he honed his skills as a pattern cutter in the city where he was born and raised. Also new for London is an homage to one of McQueen's dearest friends: Kate Moss. The hologram of the British supermodel - a spectacular feat of technology that closed McQueen's Widows of Culloden catwalk show (autumn/winter 2006-7) in a billowing organza gown - will be restored to almost life size, having appeared Tinkerbell-sized in New York.
More than 30 new garments will be displayed, including several pieces that couldn't be transported to New York - the breathtaking red ballet dress from The Girl Who Lived in the Tree (autumn/winter 2008-9) and a white feathered dress from The Horn of Plenty (autumn/winter 2009-10). Gainsbury and Whiting, the production company that collaborated with Alexander McQueen in staging his catwalk shows, has also come on board to work with the V&A on the exhibition - helping create an atmosphere very much like his shows within the museum's large exhibition space.
"I am thrilled that this magnificent show is coming to London and feel passionately that the V&A is its natural home," Martin Roth, Director of the V&A, said. "Lee Alexander McQueen presented his work here during his lifetime and studied the museum's wide-ranging public collections of tailoring, painting, art, photography and books as inspiration for his visionary designs, yet remained vigorously anti-establishment and a true provocateur."
The popular Cabinet of Curiosities section will be expanded by the V&A, with help from key McQueen collaborators including jeweller Shaun Leane and milliner Philip Treacy, and will boast more than 40 new pieces, displayed in a double-height gallery interspersed with footage of almost all of McQueen's shows.
Curated by Claire Wilcox - senior curator of fashion at the V&A and professor in fashion curation at London College of Fashion - the exhibition will present concepts and themes central to McQueen's work throughout his career. From heritage and ancestry, and nature and the natural world, to the obsession with technology and handcraft that is still central to the McQueen brand today.
"Savage Beauty is a celebration of the most imaginative and talented designer of our time," Sarah Burton, creative director of Alexander McQueen, said today. "Lee was a genius and a true visionary who pushed boundaries, challenged and inspired. He believed in creativity and innovation and his talent was limitless."
The finale of the exhibit will centre on McQueen's last fully realised collection, Plato's Atlantis (spring/summer 2010) Fusing the designer's interest in nature and technology, it was widely considered to be his greatest achievement.
"The Savage Beauty exhibition at the Met was one of the most successful fashion exhibits of all time and it's terrific that the V&A are mounting their version which is going to add to what has already been shown," Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman said today. "The imagination and creativity of Lee McQueen was exceptional and the house of Alexander McQueen continues to excel not only in fashion but also in the sense of drama and visual excitement which will make this exhibition so exciting."
. Just so stereotypical.
