Alexander McQueen Brand
McQueen at The Barbican: Dirty Looks Exhibition
Luxferity, 10.12.2025
Step into a world where luxury meets rebellion. The Barbican’s latest exhibition, Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion, open until 25th January 2026, challenges conventional beauty through an unapologetic exploration of decay, transgression, and desire in fashion. Featuring iconic archival pieces from Alexander McQueen, the display exemplifies how high‑end fashion can confront societal norms while redefining elegance.
Curator Karen Van Godtsenhoven carefully selected three pivotal McQueen designs that echo the exhibition’s ethos:
- Autumn/Winter 1995 ‘Highland Rape’ Dress – A controversial yet seminal piece that explores violence and vulnerability.
- Autumn/Winter 2000 ‘Eshu’ Dress – Fusing folklore and dark beauty, this design underscores McQueen’s transgressive storytelling.
- Spring/Summer 2003 ‘Irere’ Dress – A celebration of metamorphosis and decay through fluid textile innovation.
Sequin Embroidered Strapless Gown
"McQueen’s archive transcends mere garment — it’s narrative, emotion, and provocation stitched into every seam." Van Godtsenhoven remarked during the exhibition installation.
Installation Secrets: Bringing Archive Pieces to Life
Behind the curated lighting and museum‑grade display, each archival McQueen piece underwent meticulous preservation and installation. Textile conservators worked hand‑in‑hand with the Barbican team to ensure fabric integrity, seam stability, and embroidery preservation, so that each garment tells its story of luxury craftsmanship and transgressive artistry.
Floral Embroidered Strapless Dress
For aficionados of fashion as art, this echoes themes often underscored by Luxferity — especially in pieces on haute couture reverence and craftsmanship. See, for example, our recent coverage of Courrèges Spring‑Summer 2026 Collection, where craftsmanship and refined silhouettes are celebrated as the backbone of modern luxury.
And in our article on Jean Paul Gaultier x Crocs, we explored how avant-garde design can reframe comfort — a testament to how luxury fashion can evolve while retaining its disruptive, narrative core.
Bead Embroidered Long Dress
McQueen’s Transgressive Legacy in Context of Contemporary Luxury
McQueen’s oeuvre stands as a powerful illustration of fashion's capacity to disrupt. His garments — raw, emotional, deeply symbolic — challenge the sanitized version of beauty often seen in luxury fashion. That spirit holds contemporary relevance. In Luxferity’s recent editorial on KHAITE Spring‑Summer 2026, the balance between fragility and precision, structure and fluidity, presents a new paradigm of modern luxury — one not unafraid of contradiction.
By presenting decay and desire side by side, Dirty Looks does more than archive fashion history: it interrogates what luxury means now — and what it might become. It invites viewers to see couture not as polished perfection, but as emotional and conceptual art.
Sequin Embroidered Long Dress
Why This Exhibition Is Essential for the Global Luxury Connoisseur
If you cherish fashion as a form of storytelling, as sculpted emotion rather than mere attire, then this exhibition is essential. Dirty Looks does more than showcase garments: it offers an immersive journey into the undercurrents of desire, decay, and defiance.
It’s a must for anyone who believes luxury should be bold, complex, evocative—and unbound by convention.
"McQueen’s archive transcends mere garment — it’s narrative, emotion, and provocation stitched into every seam."
Floral Embroidered Sequin Dress (Dark Multicolor)
