Alexander McQueen Exhibit To Open At Next Year’s Met Gala!

by Julia Rubin | 5:16 pm, November 10th, 2010

Next summer’s Costume Institute exhibit at the Met will feature none other than Alexander McQueen. The exhibit, “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” will be on display from May 4 to July 31, and will showcase about 100 pieces that span his entire career — from his senior collection at Central Saint Martins (which Isabella Blow bought in its entirety) to his final collection shown just weeks after his death this February.

WWD reports that it “is expected to highlight how the designer challenged traditional notions of fashion, from construction to his creative narrative that often served as a commentary on culture, politics and identity.” Andrew Bolton, who is curating the exhibit with Harold Koda, says it will not be a typical retrospective. Rather, it will play off of the themes McQueen incorporated into his collections.

Bolton sees McQueen’s artful work as the perfect subject for an exhibit at the Met, one of the designer’s favorite museums: “After McQueen’s death, we wanted to stage an exhibition to celebrate his legacy in fashion history and his contributions to fashion. McQueen had such a singular voice and he was a remarkable technician. He really was one of the most provocative voices of the past 30 years in fashion. His catwalk presentations were outstanding and straddle art and fashion. We want to get across two elements — the spectacle of the runway presentations and the beauty of his craftsmanship.”

We can’t wait to see the show, which we imagine will be more Poiret-level sublime than Superheroes-style disappointing. The exhibit will kick off at the Costume Institute’s annual ball, which counts PPR (which owns Gucci Group and thus McQueen) CEO François-Henri Pinault and wife Salma Hayek as honorary chairs. This year’s co-chairs will be Anna Wintour (duh), Stella McCartney (a friend of McQueen and fellow Gucci Group designer) and Colin Firth (yeah, we don’t get the connection there either).

[via WWD]

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