The other Alexander McQueen exhibition: Can’t get in to Savage Beauty? Try Showstudio
A week after Savage Beauty opened, a smaller show gives us McQueen at his edgy best.
Rumours are rife that it’s impossible to get a ticket to Savage Beauty, the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. That’s not true – turn up on a week day before work and you’re likely to get in – but if you don’t fancy queuing, or getting there at 8am, there’s another way to get your McQueen fix.
Nick Knight, Devon, 1997
This Thursday, an exhibition featuring iconic photographs of McQueen’s clothing taken by long-time collaborator Nick Knight is opening at Belgravia’s Showstudio. Knight had an intuitive grasp of what made McQueen tick creatively, and shared with the designer a taste for the avant garde. Using his camera, he built upon and expanded McQueen’s creative vision, and many of the best known images of McQueen’s clothes are taken by Knight, including Devon Aoki looking like a cyborg-geisha on the front of Visionaire 20 (see below left).
“Working with Alexander McQueen was the most exhilarating and dynamic experience,” says Knight. “As much at the shoots themselves as during the weeks after in post production when we would spend hours striving for exquisite quality and perfection in colour and shade. The incredible intensity of working with someone like Lee becomes almost palpable when standing in front of these beautiful large scale prints.”
The exhibition opens to the public on 19 March and will run until 5 June 2015. It is located at Showstudio Shop, 19 Motcomb Street, London, SW1X 8LB.