Alexander McQueen: Unseen

A striking tribute to Alexander McQueen’s stunning collections, revealing photographs that were, until now, one of fashion’s best-kept secrets

Alexander McQueen has grasped the public's imagination like few other fashion designers before him, with exhibitions dedicated to his work continuing to attract record visitor numbers.

Almost 500,000 people visited the V&A's 2015 Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition, making it the most popular in the museum s history. Opening with a brief essay on the designer's work, Alexander McQueen: Unseen unfolds chronologically.

Each collection is introduced by a concise text by Claire Wilcox, one of the foremost experts on the McQueen's work, revisiting the designer's most iconic creations across his entire career and revealing previously unseen behind-the-scenes moments that capture models, hairdressers, stylists, make-up artists and Alexander McQueen himself at their most candid and creative.

Robert Fairer's stunning and high-energy photographs, all previously unpublished, capture the glamour, grit and spirit that made McQueen's flamboyant shows unique. A treasure-trove of inspiration, they make this publication a must-have reference for fashion and photography lovers alike.

Contents List:

Preface: Sally Singer • Introduction: Claire Wilcox • Essay: Robert Fairer • Nihilism • Highland Rape • The Hunger • Dante • Bellmer La Poupée • It's a Jungle Out There • Untitled • Joan • No.13 • The Overlook • Eye • What a Merry Go Round • The Dance of the Twisted Bull • Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious • Irere • Scanners • Deliverance • Pantheon ad Lucem • Black • It's Only a Game • The Man Who New Too Much • Neptune • The Windows of Culloden • Sarabande • In Memory of Elizabeth Howe, Salem, 1692 • La Dame Bleue • The Girl Who Lived in the Tree • Natural Dis-tinction, Un-natural Selection • The Horn of Plenty • Plato's Atlantis • Notes on the Collections • Credits • Acknowledgements • Index

About the Authors:

British photographer Robert Fairer worked exclusively for American Vogue behind the scenes for over a decade. Beginning his career at British Elle in the mid 1990s, then Harpers Bazaar USA and finally at American Vogue, he covered the fashion zeitgeist of supermodel, designer and fashion excess from 1993-2011.His backstage archive has been published in three monographs, Alexander McQueen Unseen, John Galliano Unseen, and Marc Jacobs Unseen by Thames & Hudson, Yale University Press, Schirmer Mosel and Abrams. Robert’s work is published in The New York Times, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, i-D Magazine, and Visionaire, as well as fashion, portrait and lifestyle books, and anthologies. Robert continues to document the fashionable elite and collaborate with his editors and clients in uncharted fashion domains.
Claire Wilcox is Senior Curator, Department of Furniture, Textiles and Fashion at the V&A and Professor in Fashion Curation, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.
Sally Singer is US Vogue's Creative Digital Director.