McQueen Show Includes A Gown Based On Sarah Burton's Wedding Dress

Steven Meisel shot some of the Alexander McQueen pieces that feature in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming show. Designer Sarah Burton, who succeeded McQueen following his suicide, says of the lace dress above, “This dress was actually based on my wedding dress — I got married two years earlier. We had to figure out how to make lace work in the round with those ruffles because Lee hated gathering. So we cut out all of the flowers from the lace and reappliquéd it on tulle to make our own fabric. This is the collection most people remember as the one with Kate Moss in a hologram. Oh, my God, it was so beautiful. He loved that show.” And of the red dress: “Lee wanted the top of this dress to be made from surgical slides used for hospital specimens, which we found in a medical-supply shop on Wigmore Street. Then we hand-painted them red, drilled holes in each one, and sewed them on so they looked like paillettes. We hand-painted white ostrich feathers and dip-dyed each one to layer in the skirt.” The third dress is from McQueen’s chess-themed collection; the body was constructed with the input of a maker of medical prosthetics, and McQueen used horse tails to suggest the knight. [Vogue.com]