2019
SARAH BURTON
for ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
Dress
Autumn/winter 2019–20
Alexander McQueen, British, founded 1992
Sarah Burton, British, born 1974
Dress of black silk taffeta; corset belt of black leather
Courtesy Alexander McQueen
1913
FRENCH
Dress
French, ca. 1913
Black chiffon and velvet trimmed with black beads and ivory chiffon and net embroidered with silver thread in a floral motif
Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of the estate of Mrs. Arthur F. Schermerhorn, 1957 (2009.300.3180)
Sarah Burton’s autumn/winter 2019–20 collection for Alexander McQueen was inspired by a research trip to her childhood home and the textile mills in the north of England. The rose dress, constructed from silk taffeta sourced from one of these mills, references the flower’s significance in British history and the rose queens of springtime festivals in northern England. Burton shaped the dress by tucking and seaming the fabric into a corseted bodice. The excess yardage is draped into petal-like forms that open at the neckline, sleeves, and skirt.
This dress of black chiffon woven with an allover pattern of black velvet roses exemplifies the uncorseted silhouette of the 1910s. The motif is rendered in the style of a woodcut print and reflects the artisanal aesthetic popularized by the Arts and Crafts Movement. The black rose, a hybrid flower, symbolizes both mortality and rebirth. Juxtaposed with Burton’s rose dress, it signals the hope and renewal of springtime.
This dress of black chiffon woven with an allover pattern of black velvet roses exemplifies the uncorseted silhouette of the 1910s. The motif is rendered in the style of a woodcut print and reflects the artisanal aesthetic popularized by the Arts and Crafts Movement. The black rose, a hybrid flower, symbolizes both mortality and rebirth. Juxtaposed with Burton’s rose dress, it signals the hope and renewal of springtime.