Student Talks Presentation
For my student talks presentation, I will be talking about Alexander McQueen. I will be talking about his legacy and some information about biography, but I will focus on his work which he is most famous for which are his tailoring skills and theatrical skills especially in his fashion shows but I will mostly focus on the bumsters are these were a groundbreaker in fashion and he was the one who did it. This post will include research on his work as his biography and work is on my other post about Alexander McQueen which I will incorporate. My work is contextual to his as I will incorporate the bumster concept in my collection but also the eccentricity which I love. I will also be talking about him as I also like to express myself and opinions through fashion.
The final presentation will be posted here as well.
Tailoring skills
Alexander McQueen's Tailoring skills began in 1984 where he was an apprentice for Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard. There, he learnt how to cut jackets and perfect them. He then went under Gieves & Hawkes where he became an expert in cutting trousers. His initial journey with tailoring lasted about 4 years, until 1988. McQueen then was training to create waistcoats and coats at Berman's and Nathan's which were theatrical costumiers. His training was a huge benefit for him in the future as he established the skill of cutting cloth quickly and precisely. His whole career and collections revolved around the precision of tailoring due to detail and construction even if some of his work was mostly theatrically aligned. McQueen enjoyed experimenting with tailoring in order to find new methods and ways that complement the body (Vam.ac.uk, n.d.). His aim when tailoring was to sabotage tradition. His aim was to destroy the norm as he showed when he embroidered "I am a c**t" at the lining of Prince's Charles jacket in order to place emphasis on authority but also cause his audience to rock a suit without it being a classical one but instead a "kinky suit". He wanted to elongate the male figure by using longer coat fronts and slightly flared skirts to complement the spine as he believed that the bottom of the spine was one of the most erotic parts of the body. This lead to him again breaking the norm by stating that as it rejects the conservatism of English tailoring. He believed that by focusing on the spine, the garment emphasises the silhouette and instead of covering up the erogenous zones he chose to complement them using his tailoring skills in order to get an "S" shape. McQueen also shifted the norm by creating suits for women which complemented the buttocks and pinching the waist. Due to McQueen being openly gay since 18, he was not afraid to state that he emphasises the male buttocks in his suits just like in his female suits which blurs the gender binary. McQueen also liked to place emphasis on the crotch especially in his Spring/Summer 2005 collection but shifted to expressing muscularity in his Autumn/Winter 2010 show (ICON, n.d.).
Bumster research
The era of the Bumsters which are pants cut below the waistline leading to the exposure of a part of the bum hence the name, were introduced to the world by Lee Alexander McQueen in his collection named "The Taxi Driver" which was his post graduate collection in the 1993 A/W. The reason behind these pants were to elongate the body and using his favourite part of the spine, the bottom which he thought was the most erotic part of the body allowed him to achieve his goal. The bumsters were later spotter again in his A/W '95 named "Highland Rape" (Deligiorgi, n.d.). When the "bumster" came out low rise jeans were trending but not with this specific element. This trend was quick to be judged as people thought McQueen was influenced by "builder bums" as sometimes in construction the pants may fall lower than normal accidentally. But McQueen responded to that. The bumsters became a sensation in the early nineties as even though the design was delightful and innovative, they were inspired by the anarchy of the British street hence provoked realism, McQueens anarchy but also were seen as a taste of what was to come in McQueens legacy (Bradley, 2013). The bumsters rise was just 3 inches, merely covering whats beneath. The original collection was just hung on a rack at the Ritz hence the actual documentation of the bumsters were in 1994 on the runway. The bumsters were introduced to pop culture by Madonna when she wore them for an MTV advertisement. The bumsters continued their debut in 1996 as well on the runway in March. Bumsters were for both genders as McQueen's aim was to blur the gender binary. The era of the pants still continued until 2001 when Beyonce wore them in her appearance for MTV’s Carmen: A Hip-Hopera (Tasjian, 2018). According to McQueen the infamous pants were considered art as just by a simple cut the torso of a woman got elongated and made women seem more intimidating as they looked longer at the top and shorter and the bottom. In addition to bumsters came their sister, bumster skirt for the more traditional woman that is still not afraid to be intimidating but prefers skirts. McQueen was mistaken for the name he gave his collection "Highland Rape" which involved the bumsters and was judged as a misogynist whilst his approach was to make people feel afraid of the women who wear his clothes and empower them to feel confident and powerful (miamiawellwell, 2016). Overall the bumsters will never stop being my favourite pants as they have so much meaning behind them and the work and thoughts behind this concept are just inevitable. I would love this design in my collection but I would probably put straps to still accentuate the bottom of the spine but in my way.
The rest of my powerpoint will be posted tomorrow on on another post including the feedback and actual presentation.
The brief for the presentation is as follows:
Prepare a Powerpoint to present to your group. After the session you will upload this to your Blog with your own commentary and the feedback you have been given.
Your presentation should include:
· An outline of what you are presenting
· A short biography or brief background to your research element
· Examples of work (painting, collections, illustrations, designs) or uses of specific materials or techniques – choose works or examples that you have knowledge of and are familiar with
· A critical analysis of the work or examples you are showing
· How your artist/designer/maker worked – what techniques did they use? How were they were appliedto the work?
· How this research is Contextual to your project work – what links can you make to the project you are working on this term?
· Who influenced your artist/designer/maker – did they have a mentor? Was it a tutor or a member of the Art/Design Movement that they were part of?
· How has your chosen research element influenced other artists? Were they a major influence on another generation of designers/artists?
· A reflection and summation of your presentation
· A reference section including your sources and picture references
· Question Time
Bradley, L. (2013) The Alexander McQueen Bumster [online] AnOther, Available at: <https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/3181/the-alexander-mcqueen-bumster> [Accessed 27 April 2021]
Deligiorgi, I. (n.d.) Alexander McQueen’s Bumsters: The Fashion Statement of the ‘90s era. [online] Art-Sheep, Available at: <https://art-sheep.com/alexander-mcqueens-bumsters-the-fashion-statement-of-the-90s-era/> [Accessed 27 April 2021]
ICON (n.d.) Kinky Suits: the true tailoring legacy left by Alexander McQueen [online] Available at: <https://icon.ink/articles/alexander-mcqueen-kinky-suits/> [Accessed 27 April 2021]
Miamiawellwell (2016) Bring back the Bumster – tantalising tailoring at its best [online] fashionphantasmagoria, Available at: <https://fashionphantasmagoria.wordpress.com/2016/10/03/bring-back-the-bumster-tantalising-tailoring-at-its-best-2/> [Accessed 27 April 2021]
Tasjian, R. (2018) From McQueen to McDonald's, a History of Low-Rise Jeans [online] Garage, Available at: <https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/qvw7vd/from-mcqueen-to-mcdonalds-a-history-of-low-rise-jeans> [Accessed 27 April 2021]
Vam.ac.uk (n.d.) Tailoring [online] Available at:<https://www.vam.ac.uk/museumofsavagebeauty/tailoring/#related> [Accessed 27 April 2021]
Comments
Post a Comment