There’s an  exhibit at our local art museum on Lee Alexander McQueen. He intrigues me to no end. 

I love fashion and always have. Some of the best years of my career were writing fashion stories for the Grand Rapids Press.

Alexander McQueen appeared on the scene after my time writing fashion so I didn’t know too much about him when I heard about the exhibition in Grand Rapids. I had moved on to Home and Garden, Lifestyle and then other freelance assignments.

Clearly he is important. This guy made such an impact in a very short time that he got a show at the Met after he died. In the fashion world, that’s a very big deal. 

The clothes in the exhibition  are absolutely gorgeous. McQueen does elaborate cuts, fabrics, drapes and seams. I suspect they were hard to produce on a mass level. These clothes are for an elite audience. They are truly special. 

In my research I learned that his biggest impact was turning runway shows into Performance Art. The Met show catalog relates says that the shows introducing his collections  increasingly had more in common with art installations than anything consumer driven. I wish I could have seen one of them. 

Maybe he didn’t mean to create clothes for mass consumption.  

The show at the  Grand Rapids Art Museum is called RENDEZ-VOUS. I wondered about the name and learned that Alexander (called Lee by his friends) and Ann Ray, a photographer who captured 32,000 images, had what they called  Rende-Vous“ or “ weird, unexpected…….warm, essential meetings.” They became the best of friends. 

Many of her images in the show are in black and white which at first bothered me because McQueen did so many really colorful garments, but then I decided they do make a nice backdrop to the dramatically displayed clothes. McQueen is definitely the star. They work well with black, white and gray garments. 

I’ll post a few more photos but if you live in or near Grand Rapids, I think this is one of those shows you need to go yourself. 

 Ask yourself:  Is fashion Art? Is McQueen’s work art? Will it stand the test of time? Will it be remembered like Dior’s New Looks or Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking evening trouser-suits  

Would you wear these clothes if they were in your budget?  What stands out in your mind? 

Do you think he’ll have a lasting influence on the fashion world?  Time will tell. 

For more information about the show: Click Here

https://www.artmuseumgr.org/exhibitions/lee-alexander-mcqueen-ann-ray-rendez-vous 

The exhibition ended with this statement and image.

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