The pandemic has deprived everyone of the colorful life they used to have this year, but it has given us the opportunity to return to a more primitive state, focusing more on how to live a good daily life. Sarah Burton seizes on this point as the theme of the Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2021 women’s collection, returning to basic clothing design without mixing any patterns, focusing on structure, and connecting a series of new works filled with human emotions.
This series is released with a 5-minute film “First Light”, directed by the famous British director Jonathan Glazer, showing the various behaviors of people in the locked-down London during the epidemic. Different from the bustling London in our memory, the desolate London in the film is deserted, filled with a sense of unfamiliarity and loneliness. Models in spring and summer outfits have their own different expressions: a woman in evening dress walks barefoot by the Thames; couples passionately kiss under the bridge; friends wave to each other across the river; some people cry sadly while others calmly eat cake. Each scene seems disconnected, but in fact, they all reflect the psychological states of people under the epidemic situation, real and pure.
Sarah Burton decided early in the lockdown to create a new collection using existing old fabrics, reprocessing them through patchwork, printing, and other methods to give them a fresh feel, showcasing her expertise in fabric manipulation. At the same time, she focused all her attention on the fundamental framework of the garments, including shapes, silhouettes, and volumes, to present structural beauty and express a desire for “purity.”
Therefore, on these 24 pieces of clothing, you will hardly see any traces of excessive effort, just a continuous stream of new ideas focused on the silhouette, such as extreme enlarging and shrinking in volume, full sleeves and billowing butterfly-shaped skirts creating a more powerful effect; tailored suits with emphasis on the shoulder line creating a strong sense of neatness. Additionally, all the clothing shares a common point, which is to emphasize the waistline with slim tailoring or belt combinations, balancing the sense of volume in the design and achieving a harmonious fit.
Various fabrics such as silk, satin, leather, chiffon, denim, herringbone wool, etc., are used in dresses, trench coats, jackets, etc., giving diverse textures and visual effects. Combined with tight corset stitching and design elements like gradient printing, this is exactly Sarah Burton’s best demonstration of making old fabrics look fresh.
資料及圖片來源： Vogue Runway
