Alexander McQueen and Art Nouveau – Pre-Fall 2020 pt 2

If you have an interest in art and haven’t heard of the ‘Glasgow Four’ maybe now’s the time to look them up, before the Alexander McQueen pre-fall 2020 collection hits the shops – or the tips of your digital-ready fingertips – this autumn.  The Glasgow School of Art at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, and it’s famous alumni of Margaret and Frances MacDonald, alongside classmates Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Herbert MacNair, became the often under-recognised godmothers and fathers of the fledging Art Nouveau scene at the time.  They were just some of the names that went on to inspire and inform the art of countless others over the decades.

Never let it be said that Sarah Burton at McQueen doesn’t know her art history, however.  As part of their recently debuted pre-fall collection for 2020, Burton pays personal homage to the Scottish Art Nouveau movement with a collection that features extravagant dresses and gowns decorated with ornate twisted iris embroideries and hand placed cabochons and dégradé metal sequins.  Some of the dresses in the collection almost act as the sweetly tailored method by which to best display the incredibly intricate ornamentation they carry.

If ever there was a time you wanted to really feel like a work of art then, be patient just a little longer.  Your time is coming.

In a series of images released in anticipation of the collection, McQueen also takes us behind the scenes of the creative process of putting these works of art together.  One of the first things you’ll notice in the BTS images is just how many times you can spot disembodied yet obviously skilled hands entering various frames from all directions.  If you didn’t know the painstaking human effort that goes into creating dresses that can stand on their own as legitimate art like any other, those images are a clear and present reminder.  Even the ‘wild nature’ setting of the campaign imagery and video perfectly reflects the organic feel of the opulent patterning on the dresses.  Sometimes, rather than looking like these patterns were sewn into place, it almost seems like a seed was simply planted in one spot and allowed to grow across the dress like a vine.

As a signpost along the way to the winter collection and beyond, everybody should be excited about where this McQueen train will take us next.

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Click here to read part 1 of our look at the Alexander McQueen pre-fall 2020 collection.

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