Fragile Beauty

Fragile Beauty was a thematic response to the Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibition. It aimed to invoke elements of romanticism and distress - a double entendre; distress of emotion and the degeneration of the world around us. It was our sympathetic way of paying respect to a collection that was on an ineffably beautiful scale. A collection that presented how McQueen was a talented designer but also an exceptional story teller - his pieces crying with emotion, revealing inner rawness triggering senses of extreme desperation. His pieces to me show an optilistic love story with a tragic ending.

McQueen's collections are diverse. It is evident how he has taken ideas from the past and sabotaged them in an unconventional and controversial way. This was supported by a woman who I also adore, Miss Isabella Blow, a lady who deserves much more credit than I feel she got in her lifetime. I remember watching a documentary about her discussing her relations with McQueen; her eyes told a love tale. She saw love through him as a person but also his work before it came to anything. Their uniquely imaginative way of seeing the aesthetics of the world around them shines through their visions. Birds were a common theme for McQueen and blow described McQueen as like a bird himself. Their flightless nature, almost weightless, elegant yet still susceptible to the pull of gravity. The idea of a landing being mistaken to a fall.. Both had fates that followed this dark symbolism.

I was fortunate enough to meet a very talented photographer and friend called Sophie Webster - her eye for detail in fashion is extraordinary. Her knowledge, passion and creative understanding is utterly refreshing. We wanted to recreate ideas from the past similarly to McQueen but we wanted to reveal the degeneration and issues of superficiality to the beholder. The scene at first glance looks somewhat enchanting, almost as if nature if taking over yet this is artificial. The ground bleeds stories of troubling addiction as the ground was covered in an inch of shattered glass. Dead animals lay in hidden corners. A place for squatters, yet now a home for mysteries without a transcript. The dress itself is a masterpiece in itself - who would believe it was merely a curtain? It teaches us the importance that we live in a world of illusions. It is superficial and superficiality is in fact meaningless unless you seek for further development in knowledge. I want to believe that McQueen was fully aware of this concept, for that is why he was as fearless that he was.


Photographer: Sophie Webster