THE MCQUEEN EXHIBITION IS COMING HOME!!!!

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Alexander McQueen AW1O (Image courtesy of Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty)

 
With the petition to Bring Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty Home in full swing (with the Guardian, Huffington Post, StyleBubble and Grazia picking it up, the number who've signed sits at 2000 +), it seemed only right to find out what the team at McQueen HQ are thinking. So I put a call in to the people there, people I've known an almost indecently long time.

It goes without saying that the McQueen team in London want the exhibition home, this is their town as much as it was his, they just can't talk about all the machinations...yet. The conversation had with them would, if I were to share it here, be full of blacked out, off-the-records bits, so I asked them for a statement of the things they could say and here it is!

"Alexander McQueen appreciates the huge amount of interest the public has shown towards the Savage Beauty exhibition. We have been in discussion with a number of major venues in London for some time now however nothing has been finalised. Please be assured that an official announcement will be made the moment we confirm our plans for London."

Success!

Alexander MQueen SS1993 (Image courtesy of Winter Phoenix's Flickr)

The details are still sketchy, but it now seems certain that Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty will take place at a venue to be confirmed in London during 2013, the 20th anniversary of Lee's business. (He started his business a few months after showing his St Martins MA graduation collection named "Jack The Ripper Stalks His Victims" in 1992).

The rumour mill is already throwing up some surprising potential venues: Somerset House, The Truman Brewery (where the real Jack the Ripper indeed stalked his victims), The Tower of London, The London Dungeons, Battersea Power Station and some traditional art venues too.

The McQueen team promise to keep us all informed of any developments, so you'll know when I know.

Alexander McQueen AW06/07 (Image courtesy of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty)

SIGN THE PETITION #bringMcQueenexhibitionhome

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This campiagn is starting to gain momentum now. Grazia magazine is supporting the petition on Grazia Daily, Katie Grand of LOVE Magazine, Lucy Yeomans of Harpers Bazaar and Susie Lau of Style Bubble are helping raise awareness so we can #bringMcQueenexhibitionhome. Please add this widget to your blogs, and tweet. This is the beginning of the campaign. It grows from here... we can make it happen.

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#bringMcQueenexhibitionhome

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

The Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art closed Monday night, and since then there have been articles writing about its unmitigated success.

Here are the facts in a nutshell: Between opening on May 4 and closing on August 8th, the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty attracted 661,409 visitors, ranking it alongside other major Met successes including Mona Lisa (1963) and Treasures of Tutankhamun (1978.) Demand got so huge the Museum extended the exhibition's run by a week, staying open until midnight on the last two nights.

An eight minute film narrated by Savage Beauty Curator Andrew Bolton

Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art said:  "Visitors from across the globe have come to see this remarkable exhibition, and we want to keep it open for as many people as possible. Indeed, these midnight hours will mark a fitting conclusion to this powerful exploration of McQueen's work."

This is great for the Met, for Andrew Bolton who curated Savage Beauty, for Anna Wintour who facilitated it, for the McQueen business and its CEO Jonathan Akeroyd.  It was also an achievement for everyone who contributed to or loaned to Savage Beauty, and of course for everyone who visited the exhibition.

But it is not great for anyone who was unable to get to New York to see it.

On Tuesday Imran Amed wrote on his Business of Fashion.com website that the McQueen:Savage beauty exhibition needs to travel the world. But I would like to amend that, and put it out there that the exhibition should just come home, where it belongs.

The fact remains that the exhibition should have been staged in London. It is a well known fact that most British people who have considered the matter think that the McQueen exhibition took place in New York without a forward plan to bring it to London, is a scandal.

Alexander  McQueen FW 2009

So I have humbly started a social media campaign to bring the exhibition back to the place where it belongs, where it should have been in the first place - home to London.

WHY THE MCQUEEN EXHIBITION SHOULD COME HOME

1. Lee Alexander McQueen was born and raised in London by Londoners.
2. He was educated at London's most famous art school St Martins School of Art, and trained on London's most famous tailoring street, Savile Row
3. He lived, worked and was largely inspired by London.
4. He began and made his name and career in London
5. He loved London
6. The Alexander McQueen business is based in London, and directed by an English designer.
6. British people want this

Alexander McQueen SS 1999

I've spoken to the Victoria & Albert Museum, who say "we would love to host the exhibition, we have spoken to the fashion house about it as we really want to present McQueen's work to our huge fashion and design audience here in the UK."

I've spoken to the team at McQueen who say "we have no concrete plans at present but are thrilled with the obvious appreciation of the exhibition at the Met and are waiting until the end of the exhibition before making any further decisions."

So, now its up to us.

Please comment on why you want McQueen: Savage beauty home and sign the petition.

Lets make this happen!  

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Tweet #bringMcQueenexhibitonhome

SARAH BURTON BREAKS HER SILENCE

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Sarah Burton photographed at the McQueen show for Spring/Summer 2011

So Sarah Burton (whose full statement is below) designed the Royal Weddiing dress after all the speculation surrounding her and it, and the flat denials issued by Burton herself. The Sunday Times was right all along. It leaves me wondering how did the Sunday Times get the story? Did the Palace leak news that the house of Alexander McQueen was creating the dress to the Times in order to divert interest away from a sordid story on Prince Andrew published further into the paper that same day? Or did the leak stem, as is also rumoured, from an unguarded comment made by the CEO of Alexander McQueen, Jonathan Akeroyd, to someone who knows Sunday Times editor John Witherow? I hope to get the full story some day in the future. 

(updated May 3 2011) Have been informed by a well placed source that the accidental leak to the Sunday Times about who designed the wedding dress came not from the McQueen business but from the Catherine Middleton camp. Sara Parker-Bowles? Sara is the fashion writer who married Camilla's son Tom wearing none other than Alexander McQueen.

Either way, the result is still wonderful. What a brilliant outcome for Sarah Burton and the Alexander McQueen business. All the darkness generated by Lee McQueen's suicide has been oblilterated by the purity and lightness of todays Royal nuptials leaving the brand Alexander McQueen as clean and shiny as a new pin. Though at the Grazia office today we were thinking that  no matter who Catherine Middleton had hired to create the dress, the actual gown would have been essentially the same, as it is clear this is the dress she wanted. However the newly minted Duchess of Cambridge most certainly chose exactly the right woman for the job.

Add to this that Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, an exhibition highlighting his career will be launched at the annual Costume Institute Benefit Gala, known as the Met Ball, on May 2nd, (open to the public from May 4th to July 31st) and McQueen is the hottest luxury fashion house in the world right now.

The soon-to-be Duchess of Cambridge emerges to show her Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen wedding dress for the first time

SARAH BURTON'S STATEMENT
London, 29 April 2010 - Sarah Burton, Creative Director at Alexander McQueen made the following comments regarding her role as designer of Catherine Middleton’s wedding dress:

“It has been the experience of a lifetime to work with Catherine Middleton to create her wedding dress, and I have enjoyed every moment of it. It was such an incredible honour to be asked, and I am so proud of what we and the Alexander McQueen team have created. I am delighted that the dress represents the best of British craftsmanship. Alexander McQueen’s designs are all about bringing contrasts together to create startling and beautiful clothes and I hope that by marrying traditional fabrics and lacework, with a modern structure and design we have created a beautiful dress for Catherine on her wedding day.

“The last few months have been very exciting and an incredible experience for my team and I as we have worked closely with Catherine to create this dress under conditions of the strictest secrecy. Understandably, Catherine has been very keen to keep the details of her dress a secret, which is every bride’s prerogative, and we gave an undertaking to keep our role confidential until the day of the wedding.

“Catherine looked absolutely stunning today, and the team at Alexander McQueen are very proud of what we have created. The dress was just one component of a spectacular day, and I do not think it is appropriate to comment any further beyond saying that I personally am very grateful and honoured to have been given the opportunity to work on this project, and I wish TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge every good wish for the future.”

[please note: in line with Sarah Burton’s desire not to comment further, neither she nor any other company representative is giving interviews today or in the coming days]

Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueens latest collection for Autumn/Winter 2011

BIO:
Burton was raised in Manchester, and studied Print Fashion at London’s Central St Martins. It was while at St Martins that she interviewed for a years placement at McQueen, which at the time was based in a little studio in Hoxton square. She worked alongside McQueen for 14 years, which made her a natural choice for taking over the label’s creative direction following his passing. A big name designer could have been brought in from another, rival label. However, the risk was that McQueen would lose the essence of what Lee McQueen had built into his design over the years: the theatricality, intricacy, flamboyance and movement inherent in all his garments. Sarah is married to photographer David Burton.

Photos: Christopher Moore/Catwalking.com; AP