User:Premeditated Chaos/13

Spring/Summer 1999

British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was known throughout his nearly twenty-year career, spanning 1992–2010, for his imaginative, sometimes controversial designs.^[1][2][3] The son of a London taxicab driver and a teacher, he grew up in one of the poorer neighbourhoods in London's East End before joining the fashion industry via a Savile Row apprenticeship.^[4] In the early stages of McQueen's career, journalists often framed him as a working-class trespasser in an industry that was seen as upper-class, which he found frustrating.^[9] McQueen identified with the persecuted and vulnerable, given his homosexuality and difficult upbringing.^[10][11][12]

McQueen's personal fixations and interests were a throughline in his career, and he returned to certain ideas and visual motifs repeatedly, especially death and sexuality.^[2][13] His fashion shows were theatrical to the point of being performance art.^[14][15] For example, in Untitled (Spring/Summer 1998), the show preceding Joan, McQueen had his models walk down a runway made of clear water tanks, then drenched them with artificial rain in the second half.^[16][17] Beginning with his graduation collection, Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims (1992), McQueen appropriated photographs and integrated them into his work. He did so again in Dante (Autumn/Winter 1996), a collection that explored religious motivations for warfare.^[18] McQueen continued to explore religion until his final collection, Angels and Demons (Autumn/Winter 2010).^[19]

McQueen's collections were both historicist, in that he adapted historical narratives and concepts, and self-referential, in that he revisited and reworked ideas between collections.^[2][10] He played with notions of clothing as armour and vice versa, creating high fashion cuirasses sculpted for the female torso.^[20][21] Although McQueen primarily designed womenswear, he had featured some menswear in previous collections including The Hunger (Spring/Summer 1996) and Dante.^[22][23]

From 1996 to October 2001, McQueen was – in addition to his responsibilities for his own label – head designer at French fashion house Givenchy.^[24][25][26] His time at Givenchy was fraught, primarily because of creative differences between him and the label; his early collections there were poorly received.^[27][28] McQueen resorted to smoking and drug use to deal with the pressure he felt to satisfy Givenchy management and the fashion press.^[28] He became overbearing and temperamental towards those around him, causing his friend Simon Costin to stop working with him before the release of Joan.^[29]

Prior to the show, McQueen had been the guest editor for the September 1998 issue of Dazed & Confused.^[30][31][32] theme was beauty in disability - "Fashion-Able"^[33] "“The idea is to show that beauty comes from within,” McQueen said. “You look at all the mainstream magazines, and it’s all about the beautiful people, all of the time."^[33] accused of being sensational^[33] Mullins appeared as a model^[33] <sub out callahan>

Spring/Summer 1999

Arts and Crafts movement of the 1880s to 1920s^[34]

dresses and skirts made of balsa wood^[33]

a stitched-up leather breast-plate over lace skirt^[33]

a model encased in a thin spiral of stiff Swarovski crystal chains.^[33]

27 September 1998 at the Gatliff Road Warehouse in London.^[35] ("disused victoria bus station")^[33] 2000 attendees^[33]

Aimee Mullins walked on wooden prosthetics commissioned by McQueen from artist Bob Watts^[33]

Show ended with model Shalom Harlow being spray-painted by robots^[34] finale inspired by Rebecca Horn installation High Moon (1991)^[34]

Sarah Burton recalled it as one of McQueen's most iconic.^[36]

Callahan: "his next one, “No. 13,” would be a masterpiece. He knew it before he staged it."^[33] quotes Menkes: "“The triumph of London’s fashion week,” Suzy Menkes said. McQueen captured the raw aggression of Britpop and the swagger¬ ing showmanship of the art scene.”"^[33]

McQueen himself recalled it as his best work, later saying it was the only one of his collections to have made him cry.^[33]

Callahan suggested that the theme indicated McQueen's dissatisfaction with his career, especially as a Givenchy employee: "“No. 13” was a plain depiction of how he saw himself: hobbled, disabled, a puppet on a pedestal vandalized by automatons."^[37]

“Anger in my work reflected angst in my personal life,” he said. “Peo¬ ple saw me comihg to terms with what I was in life: my morbid side, my sexual side. It’s always been about the human psyche. My work is like a biography of my own personality.” -- Anger in my work”: Suzy Menkes, “Mr. Letterhead: McQueen Shows a Corpo¬ rate Side,” New York Times, September 18, 2001.^[37]

• Bolton, Andrew (2011). Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. New York City: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-1-58839-412-5. OCLC 687693871.
  • Frankel, Susannah (2011). "Introduction". In Bolton, Andrew (ed.). Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. New York City: Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 17–27. ISBN 978-1-58839-412-5.
  • or Frankel, Susannah. Introduction. In Bolton (2011), pp. 17–27.
• Bowles, Hamish (2014). Vogue & the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute: Parties, Exhibitions, People (1st ed.). New York: Condé Nast. ISBN 978-1-4197-1424-5. OCLC 871511830.  Done
• Callahan, Maureen (2014). Champagne Supernovas: Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and the '90s Renegades Who Remade Fashion. New York City: Touchstone Books. ISBN 978-1-4516-4053-3.  Done
• Esguerra, Clarissa M.; Hansen, Michaela (2022). Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse. New York City: Delmonico Books. ISBN 1-63681-018-7. OCLC 1289986708.
• Fairer, Robert; Wilcox, Claire (2016). Alexander McQueen: Unseen. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-22267-X. OCLC 946216643.
• Fox, Chloe (2012). Vogue On: Alexander McQueen. Vogue on Designers. London: Quadrille Publishing. ISBN 1849491135. OCLC 828766756.
• Gleason, Katherine (2012). Alexander McQueen: Evolution. New York City: Race Point Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61058-837-9. OCLC 783147416.
• Homer, Karen (2023). Little Book of Alexander McQueen: The Story of the Iconic Brand. London: Welbeck Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-80279-270-6.
• Loschek, Ingrid (2009). When Clothes Become Fashion: Design and Innovation Systems. Oxford: Berg Publishers. doi:10.2752/9781847883681. ISBN 978-0-85785-144-4. Retrieved 5 January 2023.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• Mora, Juliana Luna; Berry, Jess (2022-09-02). "Creative Direction Succession in Luxury Fashion: The Illusion of Immortality at Chanel and Alexander McQueen". Luxury. 9 (2–3): 117–140. doi:10.1080/20511817.2022.2194039. ISSN 2051-1817.
• Thomas, Dana (2015). Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. New York City: Penguin Publishing. ISBN 978-1-101-61795-3. OCLC 951153602.
• Watt, Judith (2012). Alexander McQueen: The Life and the Legacy. New York City: Harper Design. ISBN 978-1-84796-085-6. OCLC 892706946.
• Wilcox, Claire, ed. (2015). Alexander McQueen. New York City: Abrams Books. ISBN 978-1-4197-1723-9. OCLC 891618596.
  • Bethune, Kate. "Encyclopedia of Collections". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 303–326.
  • Bolton, Andrew. "In Search of the Sublime". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 15–21.
  • Breward, Christopher. "Su[i]ture: Tailoring & The Fashion Metropolis". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 37–50.
  • Brown, Susanna. "Nightmares and Dreams". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 284–301.
  • Ehrman, Edwina. "Givenchy". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 104–109.
  • Evans, Caroline. "Modelling McQueen: Hard Grace". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 189–202.
  • Frankel, Susannah. "The Early Years". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 69–79.
  • Hack, Jefferson. "Fashion-Able". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 280–283.
  • Phillips, Clare. "Armouring the Body". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 202–209.
  • Spooner, Catherine. "A Gothic Mind". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 141–158.
  • Whitley, Zoe. "Wasteland / Wonderland". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 171–175.
  • Wilcox-REFNONE, Claire. "Edward Scissorhands". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 25–33.
  • Wilcox-REFNONE, Claire. "Plato's Atlantis: Anatomy of a Collection". In Wilcox (2015), pp. 83–103.
• Wilson, Andrew (2015). Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin. New York City: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4767-7674-3. OCLC 1310585849.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to No. 13 (Alexander McQueen collection).

• Alexander McQueen Joan of Arc Collection Fall/Winter 1998 - #TBT w/Tim Blanks on YouTube FIX