The Theme is McQueen

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City will be exhibiting over 100 of Alexander McQueen's creations, over the period of his nineteen year career in fashion. The exhibition will take place from the 4th of May to the 31st of July, 2011.

Yesterday at 8:30am GMT, a Press Presentation was held Anna Wintour; Thomas P. Campbell, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Andrew Bolton, Curator of the exhibition, at The Ritz, London where McQueen presented the press with creations from his very first collection, Taxi Driver in 1993.

Fashion's most elite, sat before a magnificent display of McQueen's creations as Samantha Cameron began with an introduction to the presentation, followed by a verbal description of the exhibition by Thomas P. Campbell and Andrew Bolton.

His fashions were an outlet for his emotions, an expression of the deepest, often darkest, aspects of his imagination. He was a true romantic in the Byronic sense of the word – he channelled the sublime. - Andrew Bolton, curator of its Costume Institute

The thematic array of McQueen's creations will include pieces from the Nihilism collection all the way through to the posthumous Angels & Demons collection shown last year. The various themed galleries allow the viewer to experience firsthand the ingenious techniques he undertook in his tailoring. Needless to say his craftsmanship is engulfed in themes that requires one to delve in to the very depths of their imagination.

It will begin with a gallery entitled The Savage Mind, which will examine his subversion of traditional tailoring, while other rooms will focus on his recurring fascination with Romantic literary traditions such as death, decay and darkness. - Imogen Fox, The Guardian UK

During his career, Alexander McQueen built his credibility based not only on his talent, but on the way he carried out his vision in his work. The most extraordinary thing about Alexander McQueen's vision was the way in which he brought his creations to life, before your very eyes, on the runway. It was indeed my exoeriencet that for the 7 or 8 minutes during his runway shows, it felt as if I were seeing the world through his magnificent eyes. He used fashion as a medium for Magic, to create clothes that resemble art in a fantastical, fierce and frieghtening way.

 Alexander "Lee" McQueen

17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010

Photography from the Collection by Sølve Sundsbø, courtesy of Vogue.co.uk
Source http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/22/alexander-mcqueen-designs-the-met 

The Subject, Indeed

Shirin Neshat

New York based visual artist, Shirin Neshat, has become the face for Ohne Titel's Spring/Summer 2011 campaign. The fashion label was founded by Alexa Adams and Flora Gill, who derived the name Without a Title as a result of their admiration for the German Artist Anselm Kiefer, who often did not title his work. In an interview for Italian Vogue, the pair discussed that the name of their label is also an implication of "anti- branding", the focus of Ohne Titel is purely on craftsmanship and design, not a name, or the association that comes with a brand name.

Look 11, S/S11

Look 23, S/S11

The collection has a very strong architectural element, and part of the design process includes the implemention of special techniques such as manipulating fabrics and creating new ways to conduct old craft techniques. One of Ohne Titel's main sources of inspiration is the work and style of Madeleine Vionnet, a French designer dubbed the "Queen of the bias cut", who also implemented architectural elements to her dress making.

S/S11 Campaign

The union of Iranian born visual artist Shirin Neshat and Ohne Titel, for the S/S 2011 campaign, was Shirin's modelling debut.
Just the way Ohne Titel's philosophy revolves around their creations (as opposed to branding), so does the work of Shirin Neshat and both parties are true to their creatvity.
Despite the incredibly perplexed issues addressed in Shirin Neshat's work (mostly with reference to politics, women in society), she creates compositions where both beauty and complexity exist.

See Ohne Titel's Collections/Collaborations
Watch Italian Vogue's interview with the Designers
Read the article about the S/S 2011 Campaign feat Shirin Neshat