Alexander McQueen Resort 2016.

Weds. 06/24/2015.





Alexander McQueen Resort 2016.

To make a Long Story, Short... Sarah Burton is NOT Lee Alexander McQueen. And, In that, lays the rub. Burton has had to craft the new world of McQueen in her image, not Lee's. Otherwise, it would have been a slavish adaptation of the real thing and had little to no meaning. BUT... And here is the big thing that one has to be aware of... There also is a LEGACY that Lee Alex left us that she has to pay obeisance to. In the beginning she did, it was perhaps a little clunky and veered too closely to what the label's creator did, but in a couple seasons, she had found her balance. Then things began to go amiss.

As Burton's confidence grew, so did her ardor it would seem to recreate Alexander McQueen in her own image, Cherry-Picking here and there idealistic homages to Lee himself but now pushing ahead into her own envisioning of what the label was to mean to today's woman. In doing that, she began letting the principles and guidelines of the house go by the wayside. One could say, Yes, Lee Alex created some of the most DEVASTATINGLY Beautiful, Fragile, Poetic and Romantic clothes ever seen, But like the most Beautiful things in nature, as with Lee, or a Rose... His beauties had BITE! They weren't anodyne meaningless trifles... there was a story, a HISTORY, to all of his beauty that had the slightest (and sometimes far more than the slightest) hint of Decay, or even... Depravity, to them that made them resonate! Burton has lost that Bite! That core of Shock that made you want to turn away, yet were compelled to keep looking!

This Resort 2016 collection is a prime example of this. It's too... PRETTY! Pretty for the sake of Pretty! And that was DEFINITELY never McQueen territory! It stumbles too far away from Lee and virtually crashes into Maria Grazia and Pier Paolo country! Yes, the pieces here are at times EXCEPTIONAL, Know that, but where's the Danger, the tawdry, even unpleasant backstory that always suffused the greatest and even the not as great, pieces of McQueen of yore? Burton has pretty much turned her back on that and her collections have become... Pedestrian to say the least by the standards of the house!

Are there some Magic pieces here, God, Yes! A gown in Black scrunched Silk with Green and White Flowers embroidered on it with a Long Line Corset bodice and tiered skirt is Breathtaking, while even that it hews way too close to Valentino, a couple of sheer gowns with lavish floral embroidery are Magnificent creations, especially the one with Lavender needlework and paired with an Olive Motorcycle Jacket. Yet, now... looking at these pieces, as Sumptuous and Lovely as they may be (and are,) if you did not know beforehand that they were McQueen... would any of them indicatively say to you, Alexander McQueen? Just by looking? If you go with your gut, you'll have your answer and you'll know why on the level of being a McQueen collection... This is a Fail. An Epic Fail!





That's All.





Bye4Now!