Alexander McQueen's Spliced Silhouettes

“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.

Classic garments and fabrics are spliced and reinvented evoking a certain familiarity. Each piece is renewed – the couture silhouette in the everyday.

A parka jacket with an exploded hood and sleeves in navy poly faille and lake blue washed denim and a fluted panelled skirt.

The initial toiles explore both silhouette and construction. Here raw denim is spliced with a parka in khaki poly faille.

The finished garment is fitted.

A pieced and reconstructed dress with a shadow wash bodice and fluted panelled skirt in lake blue washed denim.

Toiles of a shadow wash bodice and fluted panelled skirt in vintage blue denim.

The final garment is constructed in the atelier.

A peacoat with silver buttons and a fluted skirt in lake blue washed denim and navy compact wool felt.

First toiles of the peacoat and fluted skirt in panelled vintage blue washed denim and navy compact wool felt.

The finished garment is fitted.

A single-breasted tailored jacket with exploded parka sleeves and rib knit cuffs in grey herringbone wool and poly faille and elongated cigarette trousers in grey herringbone wool.

The exploded parka sleeves are explored during the toile process – a study of silhouette.

The silhouette and construction of the sleeves evolve in the atelier.