We all need a little poetry in our lives these days, don't we? Well, in their Spring/Summer 22 menswear collection, the team of Sarah Burton and Alexander McQueen bring you just that - completely literally. Inspired by British poet, painter and printmaker William Blake, the British label presented a clean collection yesterday with its precisely tailored silhouettes coupled with swirling florals, embroidery and prints.
Zippers swirled around the sleeves of a slim peak lapel black wool jacket and along the slanted side seams of matching pants, a nod to the zipper pattern of Lee McQueen's SS97 collection, La Poupée; sleek coats and vests exploded into huge cotton-silk ruffles on the chest and sleeves. Elsewhere, the romantic spirit of Blake's work translates into a more literal approach - the hazy embroidery that adorns white knit undershirts is a good example.
This is just one of many examples of the haute couture craftsmanship and attention to detail that characterize Sarah Burton's McQueen, especially how painstaking technique can be used to elevate familiar, even bland, garments. Most proud here, however, is the costume with the Dante motif, Blake's interpretation of Dante Alighieri's illustration of the 29th verse of the Divine Comedy. Here it takes on new life in the form of shimmering jacquard details on single-breasted coats, prints on bleached silk and wool, and even delicate embroidery on undershirt dresses that fall into trailing skirts of graduated marine ruffles made of chiffon, organza and tulle.
"Drawing on the concept of imagination as a form of pure escapism," the exhibition description reads, the series "revolves around lightness, air and water-the beauty that emerges from darkness." It is this spirit that colors Black's most famous paintings and poems - a reminder of the essential human capacity to transform the bleak into the beautiful. If we need anything right now, isn't it this?
