Art manifests itself in fashion in a variety of ways: a silhouette or costume from a painting can be reinvented with a modern twist, (think about the white knitted jacket in Vivienne Westwood’s "Cut and Slash" collection recreating the attire in Giovanni Battista Moroni's "Il sarto", 1565); a detail can be turned into a pattern, a mood can be used to create a narrative that supports a collection. One of the most direct methods is using a painting as a print, a technique frequently employed in fashion with varying results.
The late Alexander McQueen, for example, reimagined Robert Campin's The Thief to the Left of Christ for a jacket in his "It's a Jungle Out There" collection (A/W 1996-97).
Besides, his last collection featured a design incorporating details from Hieronymus Bosch's "The Temptation of St. Anthony" and "Hell" (from the "Garden of Earthly Delights" triptych), a gown inspired by Hugo van der Goes's Portinari Triptych, and a silk satin dress with sections of Stefan Lochner's Altarpiece of the Patron Saints of Cologne, complete with duck feather underskirts and matching kid leather gloves.
Sean McGirr, Alexander McQueen’s current creative director, is passionate about art and included a reference to a painting in some of his designs for Alexander McQueen Resort 2025. The collection was inspired by the juxtaposition of formal and casual garments, filtered through dichotomies such as aristocracy vs. rebellion and history vs. punk, that reflect McQueen’s enduring interests and passions.
The lookbook was shot at the historic Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, England, where the grandeur of the wood mantelpieces behind the models evoked Hilles House, home of Detmar and Isabella Blow, McQueen's late friend and muse (Isabella Blow’s life will soon be turned into a biopic).
The collection comes in a muted palette with some burgundy and dark ruby splashes. Suits are characterized by loose pants contrasting with blazers with sharply defined shoulders. The chiseled waists and exaggerated sculptural peplums of denim or leather jackets echo the precision of Dior’s Bar jacket. However, turtleneck sweaters with elongated, funnel-like collars that partially conceal the models' face add an element of surrealism. The neck is the focus of the attention in some of the looks, with collars elongated to impossible proportions, paired with classic school jackets and sports coats.
Checkered tops and faux furs over double-breasted coats provided variation, while the art reference materializes in asymmetrical dresses and wide-legged pants with all-over prints of Diego Velázquez's "Portrait of Pope Innocent X" (View this photo). This portrait also appears in a crystallized version on a turtleneck bodysuit. In both cases the face of Innocent X is actually invisible as the designer used the print of the Pope's robe almost in a trompe l'oeil way, to create the illusion that his painted garments are the fabric of the design.
There is another surrealist twist in the fact that the designs seem to be made from the actual canvas, as if a rebellious woman (though the collection is unisex, as shown in the lookbook) had decided to rip the painting off the wall and wear it.
In a way, this isn't a new effect since McQueen did the same in his last collection with the above mentioned dress incorporating Stefan Lochner's Altarpiece of the Patron Saints of Cologne (Download AMcQueen_AW_2010). Francis Bacon, inspired by Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X in his "Screaming Pope" series, might have been a more apt reference for a McQueen collection. However, it is logical to suspect that Bacon wasn't chosen due to the difficulty of obtaining permission, whereas Velázquez's work is public domain as its copyright has expired.
Overall the collection didn't add to or detract from the history of McQueen’s fashion house. Aside from the McQueen references, there was a JW Anderson vibe in the cropped cardigans worn by both male and female models without size variations and the oversized funnel necks. There were echoes of Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga in the moods and the attitude of some models. The shirts with elongated collars extending to impossible lengths might instead have been a nod to Vivienne Westwood’s original elongated collars (remember Siouxsie Sioux in Siouxsie And The Banshees’s video for "Happy House").
Hardware details, such as jeans with nail fringe embroidery around the front pockets and hardware elements on bags and shoes, strengthened the collection’s punk edge.
Sarah Burton, who led the house for 13 years and departed last September, primarily referenced McQueen's fascination with tailoring, history and strong women in her collections rather than art. Things might change with McGirr, yet he will have to work harder to avoid falling into the trap of using one single art reference within a collection.
Otherwise, instead of liberating paintings like Westwood did in her collaborations with the Wallace Collection and using them to critique the opulence and contradictions of the art world to indirectly criticize fashion - McGirr might fail to respect the brand's legacy while also pushing it forward. To avoid it, McGirr may have to look for art references from unexpected sources that can ignite the same sense of wonder and rebellion that defined McQueen's original vision.
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