Under a transparent cloud and suspended over a luminous
rooftop in East London, at noon yesterday the Alexander McQueen fashion house,
one of the main firms of the French group specializing in luxury goods and
articles, Kering, presented its latest women's collection for the next Spring /
Summer season of 2022. A show that well adjusted, perhaps from its most
romantic aspect, to the disruptive canons of which the founder of the house,
the now sadly deceased Alexander McQueen, always knew how to show off as an
example of uniqueness both in substance and in the ways in which the proposal
was made known.
Starting with its most obvious peculiarities, the first
thing that caught our attention was the date chosen for the organization of the
parade. That it took place after all the main international Fashion Weeks, from
New York to Paris, through London and Milan, in which Sarah Burton herself,
creative director of the firm, has not hesitated to point out as a necessity of
the house for adjusting the rhythm of their presentations to those of their own
creative processes, and not subjecting them to the hieratic needs of any
international calendar or program. Policies aimed at distancing themselves from
the frenetic rhythms of fashion that with the onset of the pandemic decided to
embrace different fashion houses, such as Armani, Yves Saint Laurent or
Burberry, but on which, however, in what dates are refers,
An inclusive roster of models
Betting on a live parade and with the assistance of a small
audience, which could also be followed live through the different digital
channels of the firm, the second aspect for which the presentation most clearly
drew attention was the casting of chosen models.
Among the models were a wide range of figures, with
well-known names such as Naomi Campbell, who managed to powerfully capture the
interest of the attendees thanks to their heterogeneous value, a consequence of
resulting from an inclusive mix of all different kinds of bodies. Some
mannequins that thus, in addition to their slenderness and ethnic origins,
showed an aesthetic, with short hairstyles and wearing all kinds of tattoos,
that adjusted them to those same radical values and of struggle against the pre-established
that Alexander McQueen always struggled to impose. through its collections and
the ways of presenting them.
A collection inspired by the London skies
Already entering the background of this collection, for its
preparation Burton was inspired by the same London skies whose light served as
a shelter for the organization of the presentation parade. A celestial vault
that the British designer did not hesitate to end up reflecting on the
different pieces, synthesizing her sensations and the passage of time in the
form of celestial patterns and on a color palette dominated by the chromatic
crosses that occur from sunrise to sunset on the sky over the capital of the
United Kingdom.
“I was interested in immersing myself in the environment in
which we live and work, in London, and in those elements with which we
experiment daily”, in how “we go from the water, and from that mud that forms
on the banks of the Thames, to that constantly changing sky, in the
magnificence that all this represents and encompasses ”, the designer herself
explained through some statements released by the fashion firm itself. A series
of elements used as a source of inspiration, so that “the artistic work of the
prints in this collection comes from what we see from the rooftops of the
studio where we are lucky enough to enjoy the most beautiful views. Incredibles
of the city: from the Cathedral of San Pablo, to the London Eye ”. So “we
observe the weather and capture the formation and coloration of the clouds,It was precisely as a result of this analysis of the London
skies, Burton explains, that the image of women as “storm chasers” began to
take shape as a pillar on which to support the collection. Modeled from there
as a crossroads of sensibilities, which end up forming a succession of garments
specially designed for the image of a strong woman but with great sensitivity,
connected with nature and with the idea of community.
"I fall in love with the idea of a McQueen woman who
has become a storm chaser, because of the qualities intrinsic to that 'storm
chaser' that is able to unite around her a community of passionately individual
people," says Burton. "They live in the same universe", and this
"clothing is inspired and designed for them." Because "storm
hunting is not just about following the beauty of views, but also about a sense
of mystery and excitement, of accepting the fact that we can never be sure what
might happen next." “Giving up control and being in direct contact with
the unpredictable is being part of nature”, it is “seeing and feeling it in its
most intense form”. It is, in short, the designer adds,
