Alexander McQueens general aesthetic and concepts within his designs really suit my ideas for the playing cards I am going to create. His Fall 2009 ready-to-wear collection saw it’s models with grotesquely over-drawn, oozing red lips which stand out against the otherwise very bare faces. I think choosing one feature of the face to accentuate the aesthetic and makes the models feel alien-like and inhuman. The heads wrapped in plastic / covered with umbrellas adds this same sense fakery and provokes me to think that perhaps the themes of the collection relate to self-preservation and perhaps trying to hold onto youth, superficial exteriors and the pressures put on women. I will definitely be drawing inspiration from this collection and try to illustrate with a specific feature of the face being accentuated- I think it will create some really interesting outcomes and help me experiment with my concept more.

The SS 1999 show was focued of the ‘arts and crafts movement and new technology’ which in some ways is quite similar to Tony Taj’s AMP work. At the end of the show, Shalom Harlow appeared in a white, puffed, virginal dress spinning around on a revolving platform in the middle of the stage. She is joined on stage by two industrial spraying robots and seem to be dancing with her. Harlows background as a ballerina helped her contrast against the industrial, mechanical and orderly robots as she danced very loosely and carelessly along side them. The show takes a turn and seems to focus more on nature vs machine as the robots begin to spray the white dress with green, yellow and black inks and tainting the innocent-looking, virginal dress. McQueen is a legend of performance art in fashion and created an immersive experience that closed the show with a rollercoaster of emotions. Harlow leaves the stage in her new tainted dress and the show officially ends.

The last collection from Alexander McQueen that I found significant to my project, was the Fall 2013 ready-to-wear show which was heavily inspired by ‘the humble piety of low church Anglicans’. The five categorise (communion, nuns, cardinals, popes and angels) had two extravagant designs each and had meticulous attention to detail in the beading and embellishments. McQueen makes a point of “I know I’m provoking. You don’t have to like it, but you have to acknowledge it”. He has strayed from using the obvious cardinal red and opted for a modern and clean cut black, white, gold and silver theme which really makes the pieces look unique and beautiful. I love the embellished cages around the heads of the models, which to me reflect the idea of the ‘higher power’ being untouchable and protected. The collection was labeled as “the most sublimely punkish assault on orthodoxy” which explores how McQueen has created a collection that both combines and rejects aspects of orthodoxy while still keeping his distinctive aesthetic present. I am a huge fan of McQueens work and think he will be a figure I look back to often in this project, as his obsession with ugly-beauty perfectly defines my FMP.