Birds in flight fascinate me. I admire eagles and falcons. I’m inspired by a feather but also its color, its graphics, its weightlessness and its engineering. It’s so elaborate. In fact I try and transpose the beauty of a bird to women.
Interpretation
The quote expresses admiration for birds, particularly their design and beauty, and connects that beauty to the artistic inspiration drawn from it.
In this quote, Alexander McQueen conveys his deep fascination with birds, especially eagles and falcons, highlighting their intricate beauty and engineering. He draws a parallel between the elegance of birds and the inspiration he finds in them for his artistic expressions, particularly in relation to women, suggesting that he seeks to transpose their beauty into his fashion designs.
In practice
This quote can be used to inspire creativity in an art class.
My friend George and I were walking on the beach in Norfolk, and there were thousands of [razor-clam] shells. They were so beautiful, I thought I had to do something with them. So, we decided to make [a dress] out of them. . . . The shells had outlived their usefulness on the beach, so we put them to another use on a dress. Then Erin [O’Conner] came out and trashed the dress, so their usefulness was over once again. Kind of like fashion, really.
I want to be honest about the world that we live in, and sometimes my political persuasions come through in my work. Fashion can be really racist, looking at the clothes of other cultures as costumes. . . . That’s mundane and it’s old hat. Let’s break down some barriers.
I was this young boy and I saw this man with his hands round my sister's neck, I was just standing there with her two children beside me... Everything I've done since then was for the purpose of making women look stronger, not naïve. And so, when everyone started saying I was a misogynist, that really freaked me out. They didn't know me. They didn't know what I had seen in my life. That was the first part of fashion that I hated - people labeling me without knowing me.
I came to terms with not fitting in a long time ago. I never really fitted in. I don't want to fit in. And now people are buying into that.
Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.
I'm interested in designing for posterity.
I am never happier than when I have something to compose, for that, after all, is my sole delight and passion
Have a strong vision about the story you want to tell and how you want to tell it.
Designers want me to dress like Spring, in billowing things. I don't feel like Spring. I feel like a warm red Autumn.
There are other singers of ranchera music who sing very beautifully, but you can tell from the way they sing that they never lived on a ranch. They never knew what it was to milk a cow, to birth a calf, to shoe a horse. I've lived all that.
The realists do not take the photograph for a 'copy' of reality, but for an emanation of past reality, a magic, not an art.
I think it's good not to make demands on the reader too early. But as the poem goes on, I want the journey of the poem to lead into some interesting places.
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