On May 2 the annual Met Ball kicks of the
Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute's new exhibit,
Savage Beauty, a
retrospective of Alexander McQueen's work. The hefty catalogue of the exhibit was recently distributed, and it features new glorious photos of some of the late designer's most glorious pieces. The book also includes Tim Blanks's interview with McQueen's successor, Sarah Burton — one of the most extensive that's been conducted to date. Burton tells Blanks that when McQueen (she calls him by his first name, Lee) got the call from LVMH to go to
Givenchy, he merely thought they were calling him to do a handbag collaboration with Louis Vuitton, which was the hot thing in fashion at the time. Burton went with him to Givenchy. "We had one pattern-cutting table, which used to belong to Body Map and Flyte Ostell, with chairs that didn't reach the table. When Lee got the Givenchy job, we got chairs that reached the table," she tells Blanks. "And he was really excited because it meant there was money coming in, and he could do things he'd never done before." One of the most memorable collections from those days was for fall 1999, "which involved a model in a Perspex robotic body," Burton says. "The guy who made the robot told us ten minutes before the model walked out, 'If she sweats in the suit, she's going to electrocute herself. So tell her not to sweat.' ".
......more on this
PARIS FASHION WEEK
starts today – an epic nine-day-long marathon that ends next Wednesday.
It’s the mother of all fashion capitals, the home of fashion’s biggest
and oldest names, from Chanel and Dior to Balenciaga and Givenchy.
If energy levels are beginning to wane among the fashion press, who
have now been on the move for three weeks, Paris is always certain to
inject a new verve. –> Instagrams of #PFW 
The
action gets underway today with Anthony Vaccarello – who is rumoured to
be Versus’s next collaborator. His sexy, skin-tight dresses are a given
though, and we look forward to seeing them worn by his model muse, Karlie Kloss,
who is a regular on his catwalk. Wednesday’s big show is Rochas and all
eyes will be on creative director Marco Zanini, who is rumoured to be
leaving for recently-revived fashion house Schiaparelli. 
