Alexander McQueen: Anemone Print Dresses

“It feels like now is a time for healing, for breathing new life, for exploring echoes from the past to enrich our future. More than ever, a sense of humanity, of the team working together with a single aim – to make something beautiful, something meaningful – feels both precious and important. We looked at water, for its healing properties, and at anemones. Anemones are the most ephemeral flowers, here made permanent in cloth. The women wearing the anemone dresses almost become like flowers, like their embodiment, their character – but amplified, grounded, radiant and strong,”  Sarah Burton, Creative Director.

The Alexander McQueen Autumn/Winter 2021 collection is inspired by the healing properties of water and by anemones. The most fragile and ephemeral of flowers, their image is here made permanent in cloth. An anemone print dress with one-shoulder is crafted in rose gold poly faille.

In the first instance, the anemone flowers are photographed. These images are then crushed and re-photographed, before being printed on to paper to evaluate scale. Finally, the crushed flowers are printed on to poly faille.

The looks are toiled many times, in order to visualise everything three-dimensionally and to ensure the piece comes to life.

The print is engineered on to a paper doll. Once the doll is exactly how the design team want it to be, the dress is scaled up to full size and the fabric is printed.

The printed poly faille arrives in the atelier.

The printed fabric is cut by hand, following the engineered placement on the doll. The atelier team begin to construct the garment.

The dress is finished in the atelier, here being levelled.