McQueen and I
Yesterday we watched Mcqueen and I in film club, a few questions that I wanted to answer from watching the film are below, with a description of the film itself.
Who is I?
Does he have an ego? Did it get in the way?
What is his view on women?
Did his education make a difference?
In 90′s Soho McQueen took inspiration from acid house and designers like Westwood. When he was at home birds of prey would often fly above and over his house, his brother thinks that this may have been an early start to inspiration in his works, as the bird of prey is used quite regularly or the silhouette of birds.
McQueen set up a studio in the back streets of London for a cheap price, he then went on to do shows in backstreet warehouses inviting the press down to watch using cheap models.His shows and designs had a rawness about them with an electric feel, the whole show and casting was misfits.
Isabella Blow discovered McQueens talent at his graduate show from CSM, where she bought his whole collection off him, Isabella really made McQueen and gave him self-confidence and often took him to the Hills on weekends to fly falcons - this again most probably was the inspiration behind most of his collection looks.
His show Highland Rape was described by the press as violent and dark, almost with McQueen himself in the show. It created outrage and horrified and repelled the press, though they never missed a show and so encouraged McQueen in his ambition.
The press wondered and questioned whether he was a better showman than a designer?
His show at Spitalfields - Dante A/W 1996 was completely different to his previous shows, it mesmerised the audience with its haunting nature, it almost had a sad feel about it and it was like McQueen was proving that he could create things that aren't just anger and violence, but could make women look beautiful.
For a time he worked with Givenchy, his presence and manner shook up the way things worked at the couture fashion house in Paris and Isabella dismayed that he didn't giver her a proper job at Givenchy, that he “used her ideas and did not pay her for it” - Isabellas Husband.
After his first show for Givenchy the French press said that the models looked like drag queens, that it was more Las Vegas than French Couture. It was his first moment of failure.
He did another Paris show that reinvented Givenchy for a younger clientèle, the press were impressed with that.
Back in England, Isabella became the head fashion director of The Sunday Times in London. McQueen and Isabella reunited and posed for Vanity Fair.
http://www.vanityfair.com/unchanged/2014/09/alexander-mcqueen-isabella-blow
“Working with McQueen was like working in an experimental factory” - Richard Lagarde, Senior Tailor, Givenchy
McQueen was very sensitive, his whole bad boy image was like an armour.
Isabellas ego got in the way of her work as Head Fashion Director at The Sunday Times, she became melodramatic and was fired, but it leaked on the web and she struggled to re-invent herself.
McQueen did a London show called untitled where his audience was made to look at themselves in mirrors for two hours. When the show finally started the audience could see the models but they could not see the audience. The press again wondered about McQueens view towards women, that it seemed violent and that they were inaccessible. At the end of the show the centre box opened to reveal a naked woman covered in moths. The audience questioned whether his models were being decorated or violated at times.
McQueen eventually signed with Givenchy’s arch rival Gucci, they gave him freedom to do what he liked.
Isabella however was suffering from severe depression and started to wear her clothes as armour. McQueen helped her to the best he could. She tried suicide three times, she tried to shake the depression but again tried suicide, the 6th time being at her hotel in Kuwait.
At 34 McQueen was the best at fashion theatre, but the pressure was growing. Isabella committed suicide by poison and five months later McQueen and Philip Treacy staged La Dame Bleue in her honour.
McQueens show in 2009 - Plato’s Atlantis - was his best yet, said the critics.
His mother died on February 2nd, 2010, and on the eve of his mothers funeral, just 10 days later, with the pressure of shows and the loss of his mother, McQueen comitted suicide.
Mcqueen walked into Central St Martins to inquire about a job and was offered an MA instead, and then went on to spend his dole money on fabric. Do you think that it is possible or would be possible to do this today?
I feel that a person could not do it today, that due to university fees, and the need for jobs and money that creativity is hard to come by completely.
