Elite Traveler May-June 2015

99 elite traveler MAY/JUNE 2015 E ISSUE 3

“While the V&A has held to Andrew Bolton’s curatorial organization, this expansion has allowed for a larger Cabinet of Curiosities,” explains Harold Koda, curator in charge of the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute. “At the Met, that gallery was a congestion point. The V&A’s expansion and addition of objects has made it more powerful, like entering McQueen’s mind, with all its dark beauty and creative originality.” Among other changes, an opening gallery simply titled “London” showcases McQueen’s life and work during the earliest years of his label. “He wasn’t always considered successful, yet his artistry is so apparent in those early pieces,” Stanfill says. McQueen’s London youth, Savile Row apprenticeship and education at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design ultimately play an integral role in shaping the retrospective and adding to its unquestionably poignant feel within the walls of the V&A, where you often could find the designer hunting for inspiration. He once called the museum “the sort of place I’d like to be shut in overnight”. Savage Beauty is considered to be a seminal exhibition for two reasons: It cemented the idea that a major museum could attract record numbers with a fashion collection, while also setting a high bar for shows that followed. Subsequent Costume Institute shows have not equaled the McQueen numbers – by comparison, its 2014 exhibition, Charles James: Beyond Fashion, was seen by 505,207 visitors – though no one is expecting to create a similar high-wattage moment. “Savage Beauty was a perfect storm of extraordinary work with compelling exhibition scenography and curation,” Koda says. “But it was one in a series of conceptually rich exhibitions happening internationally – and happened to have explosive popularity. People who had not previously had an interest in fashion exhibitions might have been introduced via McQueen to the idea that they can be as intellectually and emotionally compelling as other art exhibitions.” On May 7 the Met debuts China: Through the Looking Glass, an exploration of China’s influence on fashion, with inspirations ranging from traditional modes of dress to the artistry of Ming dynasty porcelain. Also curated by Bolton, the exhibition is a collaboration between the Met’s Costume Institute and its Asian Art Department, which is celebrating its 100 th anniversary. “It was especially important to the Asian Art Department that an explicit connection between the fashion and the extraordinary artworks in the gallery be established,” Koda explains. “The excitement for the public will be the ways in which historic artistic precedents in various media come to inform fashions conceived centuries later.” Meanwhile for those behind the

Above Some of the Alexander McQueen creations in the exhibition. Right A portrait of the late designer

deserving of a retrospective in a museum setting. Four years on, history is sure to repeat itself. Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty opened in mid-March at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and runs through to August 2. Prior to opening, roughly 84,000 advance tickets had been sold. “That broke our record for advance tickets by a wide margin,” notes Sonnet Stanfill, a fashion curator at the V&A. “Up until then the record was 67,000 advance tickets for our David Bowie exhibition [in 2013]. The anticipation and excitement for McQueen has been palpable. Even at our opening-night party, VIPs would get a drink and then stand in line to gain entrance to the exhibition. You never usually see that.” Originally curated at the Met by Andrew Bolton, “Savage Beauty” was expanded for its V&A run, featuring 66 additional garments and accessories, with adjustments made to both suit the space and pay tribute to McQueen’s London heritage. The “Cabinet of Curiosities” gallery, featuring collaborations such as the butterfly headpiece McQueen created with milliner Philip Treacy, now occupies double the space of its original setting.

Photos: Rex Features, Olivier Claisse, Marc Hom

May 22 - August 29

Through August 31

May 7 - August 16

Riviera Style: Resort & Swimwear Since 1900 Fashion and Textile Museum, London, UK ftmlondon.org

The Museum of Lace, Calais, France cite-dentelle.fr

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US metmuseum.org

Balenciaga: The Lace Magician

China: Through the Looking Glass