Raw Emotion: Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen

Spring/Summer 2011 was the first collection by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen after McQueen's tragic death.

Tim Banks for Style.com said in his review: "The very first outfit could stand as a manifesto for the future: The tailcoat is a traditional McQueen piece, but here it is softened, its edges unfinished, and the hard, peaked shoulders that were another McQueen signature had been slashed opened, relaxed."

This beautiful and romantic tailcoat, which is the piece Tim Banks refers to in his review, is a mille feuille of bias cut silk layers.  It's edges are raw as the emotions most certainly were at this point in time at the studio of Alexander McQueen...

(sorry I am not sure why the photos are so dark but the tailcoat is a snow white silk)

Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen S/S 2011 tailcoat available for purchase at RARE vintage.

and from the runway:

love, kisses and vintage, Juliana

The Ice Queen and Her Court: Alexander McQueen Fall 2011

After Alexander McQueen died and before Sarah Burton designed Kate Middleton's wedding dress, Burton designed her first full collection for Alexander McQueen.  The theme was the 'Ice Queen and her Court'.  And the setting was the La Conciergerie - which was Marie Antoinette's prison and also the site of an earlier Alexander McQueen show with live wolves.  This show had a tough, icy feeling with lots of fur edged pieces but always with an underlying feeling of romance - a darker romance with Alexander McQueen and a more optimistic sense of romance with Sarah Burton.

This dress from the Ice Queen and her Court collection is heavily studded and also spectacularly studded on black pony skin, lined in black silk and leather laced over the decollate and with two high slits on the skirt.  

Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen Fall 2011.  Only available at RARE vintage.  Size 4.

For more information or to purchase, please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

My Heart Goes Boom Boom Boom. Paris Fashion Week. Part Two. Alexander McQueen.

I think there is no doubt that one of the strongest shows for Spring 2013, was Sarah Burton's collection for Alexander McQueen.  It was brilliant, beautiful and bold.  Maybe Sarah Burton had nesting on the mind as she is pregnant with twins, but her nest of bees collection really solidified her position as the right person to take over and carry the mantle of Alexander McQueen and do it with grace, creativity, beauty and with a wild and unfettered imagination.  I think McQueen would be proud.

Clothing is really about falling in love.  A mad, passionate affair that makes you want to whip about your credit card and go shopping - or at least dream about going shopping.  And this collection was full of dreams...

Did you know that you would desperately desire a wasp-waist jacket in a small gold honeycomb pattern?  No?  Nor did I. But there it is.  Sarah Burton has given us what we did not even know that we wanted.  But want it we do!

Worn with dark amber belts with jeweled bumble bees

Wouldn't you love to find the perfect place to wear this entire outfit??!

Beautiful.  So many things here you could take apart and wear many different ways.

Victorian, panniered sexiness.

Dark amber resin corset with a honeycombed textured dress. 

Shoes with heels filled with rattling, gold crystals

Do you see how crazy gorgeous the details are?!  How astounding the craftsmanship is?!

And a baroque Marie Antoinette busy as a bee in her gilded and caged garden...

Golden honey colored fabric

The show closed with The Archies Sugar, Sugar.  Sarah Burton is our candy girl and has gotten us wanting her!

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

The Dress!

Sarah Burton it is!!  Catherine Middleton, about to become Duchess of Cambridge.  Lucky girl!!  I mean the dress of course!

From the official Royal Wedding website:
Miss Catherine Middleton's Wedding Dress has been designed by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen.

Miss Middleton chose British brand Alexander McQueen for the beauty of its craftsmanship and its respect for traditional workmanship and the technical construction of clothing. Miss Middleton wished for her dress to combine tradition and modernity with the artistic vision that characterises Alexander McQueen's work. Miss Middleton worked closely with Sarah Burton in formulating the design of her dress.


From the Telegraph.co.uk by Hilary Alexander:
Ms Middleton stepped out of the vintage Rolls Royce Phantom VI and into the pages of royal and fashion history.

Fabulous, fashionable and fairytale, it featured a high-necked, sculpted long-sleeved bodice in lace which contoured the waist and hips. The long, medieval-style sleeves and ultra-long train enhanced Ms Middleton's regal bearing as she made her way, on the arm of her father, to the Abbey's Great West Door.The design of the long-awaited wedding-dress combined majesty and modernity, royal heritage and romantic history, passion and pageantry.

Underneath the long lace-trimmed veil, Ms. Middleton wore a small pearl and diamond tiara.

And from WWD:

The dress featured a lace appliquéd bodice and skirt, along with long lace sleeves and a high lace collar. The lace was hand-made at London’s Royal School of Needlework based at Hampton Court Palace.

The design was appliquéd with individual flowers that were hand cut from lace, and then hand engineered onto ivory silk tulle. The bodice and skirt were made from hand-cut English lace and French Chantilly lace, while ivory and white satin gazar was also used in the body of the dress and its skirts. The ivory satin bodice, narrowed at the waist and padded at the hips, drew on the tradition of Victorian corsetry. The train measured eight feet long.

Middleton also wore a full veil, made from layers of soft ivory silk tulle with a trim of hand-embroidered flowers. The veil was held in place with a Cartier halo tiara, lent to Middleton by Queen Elizabeth. The tiara was made by Cartier in 1936, and was presented to the Queen on her 18th birthday, when she was still Princess Elizabeth.

It was presented to her by her mother, who originally owned the tiara. Middleton wore earrings in the design of diamond-set oak leaves, designed by Robinson Pelham, a gift to Middleton from her parents.

Her shoes were hand-made by the team at Alexander McQueen, in ivory duchesse satin with hand embroidered lace. Middleton’s bouquet, meanwhile, was made up of myrtle, lily of the valley, sweet William and hyacinth.