(music playing)
I'm Andrew Bolton, the curator of the exhibition
"Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty."
I think the title "Savage Beauty"
very much epitomizes the contrasting opposites
in McQueen's work.
As you enter the exhibition, you are faced with two mannequins.
The two mannequins I think represent many of the themes
and ideas that McQueen revisited throughout his career--
polarized opposites,
whether it's to do with life or death, lightness or darkness,
predator-prey, man-machine.
The first gallery you enter is called "The Romantic Mind,"
which is made out of concrete,
in a way reflects the rawness of some of the clothes you see
in the particular space inspired by McQueen's first atelier
in Hoxton Square, where McQueen established his house.
McQueen trained in tailoring in Savile Row.
McQueen was a remarkable craftsman.
He was able to channel the skills of his craft,
but also to use fashion as a vehicle to express
very complex ideas and concepts.
And I think in this particular exhibition--
and in this gallery in particular--
you see how McQueen would master the crafts of his trade
and subvert them.
The surface treatment in "Romantic Gothic"
is primarily aged mirrors,
the material that evokes the idea of Edgar Allan Poe's
"The Fall of the House of Usher."
McQueen often called himself the Edgar Allan Poe of fashion.
One of the most prevalent and ongoing themes
in McQueen's work was the Gothic,
particularly the darker side of the 19th century Victorianism.
Many of the pieces are inspired by the cult of death,
and it's also people with characters associated
with the literary concept of the Gothic--
like vampires, highway men, anti-heroes, or Byronic heroes.
We have a casket featuring McQueen's posthumous collection,
unofficially called "Angels and Demons."
And it shows McQueen's engagement with art history,
as well as his love of Flemish painters.
That was his favorite moment in art history.
"The Cabin of Curiosities"
refers to the 18th century and 19th century practice
of collecting objects from natural history
as a way of viewing the world.
This room in a way is the heart and soul of the exhibition
in terms of the fact that you see the breadth
of McQueen's imagination in the pieces on display.
And the objects that inspired him-- nature, primitivism--
all the major themes you will confront
throughout the exhibition are very much present
in this particular gallery.
You'll also see ten iconic moments from his runway shows.
McQueen was a great sponge,
and he looked everywhere for inspiration,
and you see all those references come together
in this particular gallery.
(music playing)
In "Romantic Nationalism," the surface treatment is marquetry
that is designed to reflect McQueen tartan.
McQueen was an incredible storyteller,
and most of his collections are narrative-based.
In this particular case,
it shows his great pride in his Scottish heritage
and also his great love of British history.
So in a way, there's a face-off between the Scots and the Brits.
(music playing)
The second room, "Highland Rape,"
is comprised of raw wood.
"Highland Rape" was very provocative
when it first was shown in 1995.
Many people interpreted the rape as being
the rape of women.
McQueen was very adamant in the fact
that the rape in the title reflected the rape of Scotland
through the Jacobite Risings of the 18th century
and the Highland Clearances of the 19th century.
I think that the violence of that particular time in history
was reflected in McQueen's clothes,
in the very construction of them.
It's almost as if he took scissors to the garments
and slashed them.
The hologram was the finale of "Widows of Culloden."
Near the hologram is
a variation of the dress that Kate Moss is wearing
made out of hundreds of layers of silk organza
with raw edges.
In "Romantic Exoticism," we wanted very much
to give the idea of a music box.
So we used mirrors to give an idea of infinity,
and also rotating turntables.
McQueen often looked for inspiration
not only in the distant past, but also in other cultures--
particularly China and Japan.
McQueen loved embroidery,
and Japan and China were two cultures that excelled--
as did India, another great influence in McQueen's career.
"Voss" is a collection that featured exoticized garments
very heavily.
You see two examples here in patchwork
that gives the impression of chrysanthemums,
a flower associated with the East, particularly Japan.
"Voss" was a collection stage with a box within a box
and a two-way mirror.
The finale of the collection
was a small box within the larger box,
with the walls crashing down,
revealing a naked lady with moths fluttering around her,
inspired by a photograph
by Joel-Peter Witkin entitled "Sanitarium."
In "Romantic Primitivism,"
the surface treatment is a rusty metal,
and that's meant to evoke a sunken ship.
(creaking)
(waves crashing)
The featured collection is a collection called "Irere,"
which told the story of a shipwreck at sea
and the subsequent landfall in the Amazon.
(waves crashing)
And the video you see suspended above the gallery
functioned as a backdrop to McQueen's collection
and was a film shot by John Maybury.
Featured very heavily in this particular gallery
are contrasting opposites such as predator-prey,
or primitive and civilized.
In "Romantic Naturalism," the first portion of it
is actually a drawing that was created by McQueen
that we've blown up and reproduced
to represent wallpaper.
Nature was probably one of the most prominent themes
throughout his career.
McQueen loved nature, loved the natural world,
and often looked to the natural world
for the raw materials of his clothes.
(birds chirping, hoofs beating)
And the final gallery, "Plato's Atlantis,"
is the last fully realized collection that McQueen designed
before he died in February of 2010
and is covered in acrylic tiles to give the idea
of a clinical laboratory.
And to me, it was a collection that in a way summarized
all the major themes throughout McQueen's career.
The contrasting opposites of man-machine,
nature and technology.
The actual collection was streamed live over the internet
in a way of trying to create a dialogue
between the consumer and the creator.
McQueen loved to provoke
and loved to provoke you emotionally.
And I think he did that
by tapping into one's cultural anxieties
or one's uncertainties, one's hopes or one's desires.