Advertisement
#1 Red Carpet
While McQueen is most known for doing over-the-top haute couture designs, they make tons of red carpet gowns, as well. This dress that Jessica Chastain wore to the 2012 Academy Awards is a perfect show of McQueen elaborate detailing without being "too much" for the red carpet.
#2 The Royal Wedding Gown
Designed by Sarah Burton, who took over as creative director of the Alexander McQueen brand following the suicide of Lee Alexander McQueen. While Burton had already been known in the fashion community, the classic lace dress worn by Kate Middleton rocketed the designer the fame.
#3 Blue Bodice Wedding Dress
Another wedding dress, and so very McQueen. With the juxtaposition between the hard mosaic bodice and light fluffy skirt, this dress is a perfect example of McQueen's style.
#4 Red Coat Ensemble
The red silk satin coat is just extraordinary in and of itself, but will the bejeweled empire waist ivory gown and red Faberge egg-esque evening bag, oh we're just gone.
#5 Lace Peacocks
This black and white lace and organza dress comes from the Fall 2008 collection. (If it looks familiar, it's probably because the wedding dress worn by Fleur Delacoeur in the sixth Harry Potter movie is almost identical.) It's an original use of the peacock motif, especially because it's in black and white, giving it a feel that's both avant garde and classic.
#6 Scottish Flair
Here's the man himself with Sarah Jessica Parker at the 2006 Met Gala, AKA the costume ball. Call us sentimental, but we love the matching outfits. SJP has donned quite a handful of McQueen creations over the years, but we just have to give credit to this one.
#7 Monarch Dress
It's a dress seemingly made from monarch butterflies. We don't know what else to tell you. Just look at it. Butterfies.
#8 Lace and Antlers
We can't think of any other designer who could put antlers on a model and surround their head in lace. McQueen said of this ensemble, “When we put the antlers on the model and then draped over it the lace embroidery that we had made, we had to poke them through a £2,000 piece of work. But then it worked because it looks like she’s rammed the piece of lace with her antlers. There’s always spontaneity. You’ve got to allow for that in my shows.”
#9 Japanese Collage
We've heard of multimedia but we've never heard it applied to clothing. This ensemble from the spring/summer 2001 collection uses a Japanese silk screen over an underdress made of oyster shells, all topped with a neckpiece of silver and Tahiti pearls. Who knew?
#10 Hanging Gardens
Not that we're not impressed with the silk-thread embroidery, but what catches our eye most about this piece is the headdress. It's practically a windowbox, but somehow McQueen makes it soft and delicate.
#11 Pseudo-Victorian
While we don't really understand the point of a "pre-fall" collection (I mean, you have spring/summer and fall/winter. Isn't that enough? And isn't pre-fall basically, you know, summer?) but all that aside, McQueen pre-fall 2012 collection remains one of our all-time favorites. It's a stunning mix of ornate embroidery embroidery; black tulle, silk, and velvet; and deep reds and greens. This gown is just one breathtaking example.
#12 Shipwreck
McQueen's spring/summer 2003 collection Irere told the story of a shipwreck on an Amazonian island. This dress made of hundreds of layers of silk and organza became known as the shipwreck dress for the underwater feel it evokes.
#13 Red Glass
The idea behind this incredible dress for the spring/summer 2001 collection was, as Alexander McQueen said, "There's blood beneath every layer of skin." The skirt is made of ostrich feathers dyed red and black. The glass pieces that comprise the bodice are actually microscope slides painted red to give the idea of blood.
#14 Flowered Finery
This floral creation was originally part of the spring/summer 2007 line. A structured base of nude organza provides the perfect canvas for a collage of silk and real flowers. Yes, real flowers. Of this piece, McQueen said “Remember Sam Taylor-Wood’s dying fruit? Things rot. . . . I used flowers because they die. My mood was darkly romantic at the time.”
#15 Gold Feathers
It seems only right that we end this with a piece from Alexander McQueen's last living collection. This gorgeous dress is yet again, another example of McQueen's use of juxtapositions. A dress made entirely from the top - of stuff, form-fitting, gold feathers - or from the bottom - soft, white organza with delicate gold and silver embroidery - would be very different from the dress that uses both.
Advertisement
