Were you one of the 661,509 visitors to the Alexander McQueen exhibit?
The retrospective was among the Met’s top ten most visited exhibitions in its 141-year history (#8 overall). Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty featured over a hundred ensembles and seventy accessories beginning with the designer’s first collection as a Central St. Martin’s postgraduate in 1992 to his final runway presentation, which took place after McQueen’s death in 2010. The Brit was a star in the fashion world who committed suicide days after his mother’s death, leaving behind, among other things, a catalogue of work that went beyond fashion to reach the outer limits of art.
There was so much interest in the exhibit that the Met offered several extensions to accommodate the crowds. It extended the exhibition by a week, stayed open until midnight, and opened the exhibit on Mondays (when it was usually closed). Even those measures were not enough as on the final day people waited for hours rather than be left out of the event of the season.
As a designer, McQueen fused fashion and art making his shows into full-on spectacles infused with his gothic style and personal philosophies. At the entrance to the Savage Beauty exhibit a blood red dress made of feathers and microscope slides that hung on the bodice like sequins greeted visitors.
“I want to be the purveyor of a certain silhouette or a way of cutting, so that when I’m dead and gone, people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen,” the designer reportedly said, referring to himself in the third person.
At a now-famous 1995 show, “Highland Rape,” McQueen referenced the rape of Scotland by England blending history and social injustice with the world of fashion and art.
The designer’s last show, “Angels and Demons,” combined horror and romance, light and dark and was actually held days after he died, leaving many to look for clues in the final collection.
Through Savage Beauty, curated by the Costume Institute, over half a million visitors now have had their look, a number that’s likely only to grow. He and the exhibit are missed.
