Alexander McQueen: NGV announces summer fashion exhibition

A British fashion designer, and his often controversial and polarising garments, will bring some serious flair to Melbourne this summer.

NGV senior conservator of textiles Skye Firth at the NGV’s announcement of its major summer exhibition Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse. Picture: Eugene Hyland

British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, and his often controversial and polarising garments, will be showcased at the NGV International in December.

Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse is the first major Australian exhibition to explore the work of the late fashion designer, and will feature more than 50 works from the NGV Collection, and 60 garments on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Nicknamed the “hooligan of fashion,” McQueen rose from working class roots, and an apprenticeship on London’s Savile Row, to creating with designs that brought distinction — and drama — to the catwalk.

Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse will feature more than 110 works from the NGV and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s collections. Picture: Getty Images

NGV director Tony Ellwood said: “Alexander McQueen is beloved for his boundary-pushing and highly conceptual designs that set him apart from his contemporaries. He created a new vocabulary for fashion design that still resonates today.”

The exhibition includes McQueen’s controversial Highland Rape collection (autumn-winter 1995-96), which he said was about by “England’s rape of Scotland,” Deliverance (spring-summer 2004), which took notes from a “dance to the death” psychological drama, and his final work, Plato’s Atlantis (spring-summer 2010), which mused about climate change and a world underwater.

Woman’s ensemble: dress and leggings from Alexander McQueen’s Plato’s Atlantis collection. Picture: Supplied by NGV

NGV Foundation board member and philanthropist Krystyna Campbell-Pretty. Picture: Eugene Hyland

“He’s so well known for many spectacular runway performances, but … there’s concept and meaning and art historical references being made,” Clarissa Esguerra, LACMA’s associate curator of costume and textiles, said.

“Everything is imbued with so much thought and attention to detail.”

Katie Somerville, the NGV’s curator of fashion and textiles, added: “He was truly visionary in terms of how he had all these ideas in his head, some of them about difficult subjects, but he was able to translate them through these incredible clothes.”

McQueen died in 2010 after a long battle with depression.

The exhibition opening coincides with the annual NGV Gala, which will be held on December 10.

Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse runs from December 11, 2022 to April 16, 2023.

Tickets: ngv.vic.gov.au