7 of the Alexander McQueen Brand’s Most British Motifs Inline
Photo: Condé Nast Archive1/7Fall 1996
Lee McQueen’s Fall 1996 collectsion riffed on ideas always present in his work, like structure and unexpected materials, but this Victorian-inspired number paid direct homage to the styles of his homeland.
Photo: Shoot Digital for Style.com2/7Spring 2003
Amid the slinky black dresses and rainbow-hued gowns of McQueen’s Spring 2003 collectsion were cropped Elizabethan doublet jackets and the occasional ruff.
Photo: Marcio Madeira3/7Fall 2006
McQueen’s Fall 2006 collectsion included references to his earlier Highland Rape collectsion in the form of the rampant use of tartan. Here, it was rendered more elegant, worn over Victorian crinolines or cut into a Savile Row–worthy suit.
Photo: Marcio Madeira4/7Spring 2007
Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon was McQueen’s jumping-off point for his Spring 2007 showing. Kubrick’s cinematic Brits inspired the collectsion’s Edwardian notes and seductive undertones.
Photo: Marcio Madeira5/7Fall 2008
Fall 2008 may rival the Highland Rape collectsion for the title of McQueen’s most British collectsion ever. Touching on the country’s Indian imperialist era, Queen Victoria, and the Duke of Wellington, McQueen’s collectsion was rife with references to all things English.
Photo: Marcio Madeira6/7Spring 2009
Charles Darwin’s theories, which inspired McQueen’s Spring 2009 collectsion, may apply to all people—and animals and plants—but a fascination with the scientist is a very British preoccupation. Don’t forget, Darwin’s visage appears on the country’s £10 note.
Photo: Marcus Tondo / Indigitalimages.com7/7Spring 2016
Seventeenth-century Huguenot émigrés who arrived in England and took up weaving at the Spitalfields mills served as an inspiration for Sarah Burton’s Spring 2016 showing. Floral patterns influenced by the group adorned fluttering gowns, while other explorations of floral motifs arrived on denim and semi-sheer chiffon.
