Alexander McQueen SS2021
On the banks of the River Thames, the spring-summer 2021 collection by Alexander Mcqueen came to life, walking on paths previously traced by some of the greatest classics of the English literature.
In these Dickensian atmospheres, the characters parade along the muddy and grey banks of the London River, steal wallets, have a picnic and roll in the mud. The models appear distant from those who observe them as if absorbed in a fairy-tale world far from the greyness of which, in fact, they are surrounded.
The clothes perfectly reflect the atmosphere and with it the feelings of the characters, who move slowly through the dirty waters of the river with a dreamy air. The influences of the Elizabethan era clearly transpire in the silk balloon sleeves, in the curves of the clothes and prints on the fabrics, from the corsets stripped of any embellishment or superstructure.
As is often the case in the collections of Sarah Burton, there is a clever use of contrasts, fabrics that are combined with delicate cuts that are at first more aggressive, creating magnificent balances from these apparently dissonant combinations; combat boots dirty the purity of clothes, giving it a more authoritative and determined aura, softened by the light shades and shapes of the fabrics.
Referring to First Light, the name of the new collection, the designer expressed the desire to return to the essence of dress, being this the material witness of human connections and emotions.
