It’s been five years since the death of Alexander McQueen, but time and fashion, have yet to forget the prince of gothic design. In fact, tomorrow marks the opening of Savage Beauty, an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London that celebrates the romanticism and darkness of his work. The original exhibit, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, was on display at the Met in New York in 2011, but many are treating the London re-staging as McQueen’s “homecoming.” The retrospective will encompass his 18-year career, from his senior collection at Central Saint Martins to his unfinished F/W 2010 collection, totaling 244 pieces of clothing, shoes and accessories.
The original event at the Met was one of the best-selling exhibits ever, and rivaled those of the Mona Lisa loan and the King Tut tour in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Today, the Victoria and Albert Museum has already sold 70,000 presale tickets and has even extended its stay for an additional two weeks to accommodate demand. Clearly McQueen’s sartorial tributes to primitivism, nationalism and historicism speaks to fans across the world. He once said, “I want to be the purveyor of a certain silhouette or a way of cutting, so that when I am dead and gone people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.”
Last night an Opening Night Gala was held at the Victoria & Albert Museum where celebrities, fashion insiders, and close friends and family of the designer turned out in droves, each of them wearing a unique McQueen-designed piece. Standout looks of the evening included Kate Moss’ black, lace gown, Erin O’Connor’s white, tuxedo dress and Salma Hayek’s kissing peacock ball gown. Guests danced, dined and discussed their favorite attributes of the late designer. “I feel immensely proud of him,” O’Connor revealed to Vogue. “I wonder what he would have made of it all.”
