Alexander McQueen Exhibit Reviewed by Kate

August 16, 2011

Saturday, August 6 was a sad, sad day in the world of Fashion Tourism – the last day of the Savage Beauty exhibit at the Met. I hope that you had the chance to see it before it closed, because it was a fantastic exhibit. It set a lot of records at the Met – most number of visitors (well over half a million), and extended hours. All of this hype and talk mainly by word of mouth too! Navigating the exhibit from start to finish was an adventure. The lines to get in went down the block – and once inside weaved in and out of rooms filled with magnificent sculptures.

A true feast for the eyes, the exhibit has been months in the making and had special rooms built and installed inside to house everything. There were 10 rooms total each with a different focus. The rooms were designed in a way to show off all of Alexander McQueen’s amazing skills – from his exquisite tailoring from his years as an apprentice on Saville Row in London, to his surreal prints, and to his eccentrically of pairing accessories with an over the top look. My favorite piece was on display – a dress from his Man Vs. Machine collection – aren’t the paint splatters beautiful? This piece was created on the runway – the model walked out in a clean white dress only to be confronted by two robots armed with paint – that covered her and the dress! The Met featured a video of this collection above the dress. Other interesting features of the exhibit were a hologram viewing of one of McQueen’s pieces, ample videos of his runway shows and inspiration, and music in each room to set the mood.

I was fortunate enough to make it 3 times to the exhibit over the course of the summer – and each visit was better than the last!

–– Kate

(click on the image above to view in greater detail)

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