The
time of Alexander McQueen began in the nineties and is continued into today.
During the decade of the nineties and leading into the 2000s, a huge push for
environmental awareness was seen crawling across the United States, as well as
the rest of the world. In 1992 former Vice President Al Gore published Earth in the Balance, a work on the noticeable
change that our environment was, and still is going through. (Gore). He gave an
explanation to how harmful global warming is, and how we must come together to
save the environment. The issue of global warming spread throughout the country
for the rest of the decade, and flooded into the new century. The 2000s
resulted in an even bigger push for environmental awareness. Electric cars were
now being produced, plastic bags at grocery stores were now replaced with
reusable ones, using less was now popular, and solar energy was now being
harvested instead of relying on electricity. The spirit of the times was going
green, being environmentally aware, and helping to save our planet. In 2006 Al
Gore release An Inconvenient Truth, a
documentary covering global warming and climate change. (An Inconvenient
Truth). Once again, Gore was in the head of being environmentally conscious.
With the production of this film, more and more citizens were becoming fully
committed to practicing a greener lifestyle, and helping to save the
environment. Included in this group was also McQueen, who sought to live a more
eco friendly life, and always looked to the environment for inspiration. His
Spring/Summer 2010 collection, entitled Plato’s
Atlantis touched the themes of “climate change and evolution; some of the
clothes whispered of potential biological hybridization of women with sea
mammals in the post-biological meltdown future. (Knox 16) Many of his lines
fashion shows also included elements of nature. McQueen was stated saying, “I
have always loved the mechanics of nature and to a greater or lesser extent my
work is always informed by that.” (Bolton 172). He felt a great connection with
nature, and wanted to display its beauty through the art of his designs. McQueen
was influenced from designers, as wells film directors. Tim Burton inspired his
Roman Gothic collections. He loved the way the director “started off dark and
then got more romantic as it went along.” (Bolton 85). His lines reflected this
art form, beginning more dark and gothic, then moved towards romantic patterns.
McQueen will forever be a fashion icon for numerous reasons. He came from a
background that wasn’t the high quality lifestyle many designers grew up in. He
was able to find his path through what he loved, which was creating women’s
clothing and expressing a wild, avant-garde art form through his designs. He
rose to the top of the fashion world very quickly, receiving awards and being
recognized internationally. His work had produced designs that will be studied,
and appreciated far into the future.
Bibliography
"An Inconvenient Truth (film by Guggenheim [2006]) --
Britannica Online Encyclopedia."
Britannica Online Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.
Bolton, Andrew, Alexander McQueen, Susannah Frankel, Tim
Blanks, and Sølve Sundsbø. Alexander
McQueen: savage beauty. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art ;, 2011. Print.
Gore, Albert. (2002). In International Encyclopedia of
Environmental Politics.
Knox, Kristin. Alexander McQueen: genius of a generation.
London: A&C Black, 2010. Print.
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