The China List: Alexander McQueen, Fashion
Wallpaper* and China’s Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development Fund (CHSDF) present China By Design—a celebration of Chinese cultural heritage and the many global creatives who have been inspired by it.
![Alexander McQueen fashion designs](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/55bJdtx7apmMRKwhtM48u9-415-80.jpg)
Rawness and romanticism were two tenets of Alexander McQueen’s design philosophy. But also integral to the designer’s aesthetics was a type of Eastern exoticism, with qipao dresses, bird, floral and dragon motifs, and shimmering gold embroidery all featuring heavily in his genre-and-era-crossing collections. McQueen’s S/S 2001 Voss collection referenced Chinese garments and adornments, such as an opulent raffia coat embroidered with chrysanthemums in gold, red and black silk, while his A/W 2003 collection featured a body-hugging gilded jute dress festooned with Oriental blooms. ‘I have always loved the mechanics of nature and to a greater or lesser extent my work is always informed by that,’ he said.
Alexander McQueen, Voss, S/S01
Alexander McQueen, Voss, S/S01
For the brand’s A/W 11 collection, Sarah Burton – who took the creative reigns of the label in 2010, after Alexander McQueen’s untimely death – looked to the blue-and-white tones of Ming porcelain as inspiration. Burton took ten hand-painted porcelain plates, which were smashed into fragments and then pieced together to form the mosaic bodice of a dress, accompanied with a frothy undulating skirt formed from folds of organza. Renowned for incorporating unusual, delicate materials into its designs, such as the dresses crafted from razor clams and oyster shells in S/S 2001’s Voss collection, the London-based label is sure to continue to look East for inspiration.
Sarah Burton.
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
-
Take off: Mathieu Lehanneur's Olympic Cauldron rises into the Parisian night sky
The Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony was closed with a soaring cauldron spectacle that will go down in history
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published