Less hit, more miss, but she’ll get there

Finally, the collection I had been waiting to see, Alexander McQueen F/W 2011.

Some forget what a role Isabella Blow had for McQueen. Not just a champion but a difficult, rude and ostentatious muse. When she died and as McQueen’s star rose in the last few years there was a decline and a certain generic feel about his collections. A man on autopilot.

Sarah Burton’s F/W 2011 collection feels very pastiche and I don’t see anything new here, it in fact feels too severe, too crude. There is a delicacy of carrying on the McQueen aesthetic and Sarah finding her own vision and she is not there yet.

The zips, peaked ruffles, leather corseting have all been seen before only the sharp hourglass dresses here are I think, quite ugly.  Many people say, well McQueen was not wearable; Sarah’s vision is softer and more wearable.  Well I would reply that McQueen has always been wearable. That was his trick of the catwalk, to translate designs that ultimately did shift units in the stores (eventually).

There are moments in this collection where I see a McQueen I would wear but not many. There needs to be some Sarah consistency, some vision and less fur please. She may get there; I did not expect her to just hit the ground running but I do not see a collection to rave about here. Only the last black dress posted took my breath away.

Images credited to catwalking.com