{"id":183,"date":"2015-04-02T10:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T10:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/?p=183"},"modified":"2015-04-02T10:00:24","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T10:00:24","slug":"alexander-mcqueen-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/alexander-mcqueen-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander McQueen Exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know when you build something up so much in your head that reality will never live up to it?\u00a0Well, I\u2019m a professional at this, so when I got the chance to go see the <\/span>Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A<\/a> I decided to keep my expectations minimal and enter with an open mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

The exhibition is broken up into different periods of his work, more generally themes, the first of which was a gothic inspired collection, which was not my cup of tea. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, I thought it was ironic that he felt inspired by the London because most of the collection was done completely in black and that\u2019s probably one of the things I like least about moving here. It\u2019s okay to wear bright colours,\u00a0people!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

‘London\u2019s where I was brought up. It\u2019s where my heart is and where I get my inspiration.’ \u2014<\/i>Alexander McQueen<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While I couldn\u2019t get behind the all black ensembles and don\u2019t know enough about the history of fashion to appreciate his ground break attitude, I could appreciate a few more \u201ccontemporary\u201d collections. And I don\u2019t say contemporary because it\u2019s something you would necessary want to wear now but the spirit of the collection is something I\u2019ve seen a lot more of lately.<\/span><\/p>\n

He drew inspiration from bright corals, African tribes and the Japanese kimono. All of which I found\u00a0some connection to the various different fashion bloggers flooding Instagram. But what really stuck out to me the most throughout this whole wandering through was the amount of strange materials. I saw things from hair to glass beads to wire and ostrich feathers. Not exactly your run of the mill materials, but yet they worked. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u2018It was about trying to trap something that wasn\u2019t conventionally beautiful to show that beauty comes from within.\u2019\u00a0\u2014<\/i>Alexander McQueen<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s what I loved most about the exhibition was that it was strange, random and at times overwhelming but at the end of the day when you look back you realise it all worked. There\u2019s a fluidity in McQueen\u2019s style that’s\u00a0presented in a deeply thought provoking way. There is nothing ordinary or simple about his designs and there is nothing simple about the way his exhibition was shown.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through it all, there was one room that stopped me in my tracks. A room filled with bright reds, crisp whites and a touch a black all covered in Swarovski crystals. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen so many Swarovski crystals in one room before, let alone adored on dresses, shoes, headpieces you name it. According to the V&A website<\/a>, McQueen and Swarovski have a long history together and have been collaborators on multiple collections and was actually the framework of Swarovski\u2019s tradition of collaboration with haute couture.<\/span><\/p>\n

This exhibition isn\u2019t for everyone but if you\u2019re sitting on the fence, take the jump and give it a chance. It will leave you wondering what you\u2019ve seen and question what you knew not only about fashion but how you perceive the world around you. Inspiration truly does come from anything and everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u2018You\u2019ve got to know the rules to break them. That\u2019s what I\u2019m here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.\u2019\u00a0\u2014<\/i>Alexander McQueen<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


\nRead this post and other stories on Staci\u2019s personal blog<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know when you build something up so much in your head that reality will never live up to it?\u00a0Well, I\u2019m a professional at this, so when I got the chance to go see the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[38,57,58,254,424,738],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-london","tag-alexander-mcqueen","tag-art-and-culture","tag-art-exhibition","tag-fashion","tag-london","tag-va"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}