Alexander McQueen Pre-Fall 2019

Galleries
Collection

This big, bold collection drew on the industrial north of England, Fifties ballrooms and Eighties punks, with debutante styles strolling alongside tailored, mannish silhouettes. Eveningwear was a hybrid of punk and couture, with fat bunches of tulle sprouting from under the full sleeves of silk, rose-printed tops and double duchess satin dresses with raw, frayed edges. Those dresses were often slashed, with uneven hemlines and bejeweled safety pins, or tough leather belts at the waist. Other dresses glittered with crystal chandelier style adornments or garlands of diamanté jewelry, while slimmer styles were spliced together from wool silk and thick satin.

Daywear was done in sturdy English fabrics, as in a hybrid coat that was part houndstooth, part double duchess silk, while suits came as peg leg trousers paired with jackets that had trompe-l’oeil double lapels. Other wool jackets had built-in, corset-style belts or big flourishes of fabric flaring from one side, while a trench was a patchwork of white gabardine and black–and-white Prince of Wales check. Shapely knit dresses, tops and skirts were modeled on Fifties corsetry styles, while leathers came in a dramatic claret trench or black skirt suit with short, bell-like sleeves.