Nick Waplington/Alexander McQueen: Working Process

Fascinating exhibition at Tate Britain of photographs by Nick Waplington following Alexander McQueen creating his Autumn/Winter 2009 collection.

McQueen commissioned Waplington to do this to create a photo book. As the show used ideas from throughout McQueen’s career and subverted them often using items of rubbish in their construction or making them to look like rubbish e.g. dresses made to look like bin bags but in amazing fabrics. The photos are shown alongside Waplington’s large scale photographs of recycling plants.

The photos from the design studio show first fittings right through to the moments before the catwalk show. The commentary and texts on the wall come from a conversation between Waplington and the fashion writer, Susannah Frankel who helped document the process for the planned book. The pictures show all the team at the studio and give an image of a happy creative atmosphere.

This was a wonderful foil to the V&A block buster show as it gives a real idea of how McQueens creative process worked as well as being a fascinating collaboration between artists in two different mediums.

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