Some couture collections have everything including the kitchen sink! Everything gets thrown on to make it look expensive. I find it grotesque when clothes hit you in the face and there's no room for fault. But I don't expect to turn things around all by myself. I'm not a saint.
Interpretation
The quote critiques extravagant fashion while acknowledging that change in the industry isn't solely an individual responsibility.
In this quote, Alexander McQueen expresses his disdain for over-the-top fashion designs that prioritize excess and extravagance over refinement and subtlety. He reflects on the challenging nature of the fashion industry, recognizing that he cannot single-handedly effect change in such a complex environment, and humbly admits to his own imperfections, suggesting that a collective effort is necessary for meaningful transformation.
In practice
During a fashion critique, one might use this quote to discuss the impact of excessive designs in a collection.
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.
The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite. Without this, it is impossible to accumulate, within the allotted span, enough experience of eating to have anything worth setting down.
The arts are neglected because they are based on perception, and perception is disdained because it is not assumed to involve thought.
You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.
My head is full of fire and grief and my tongue runs wild, pierced with shards of glass.
I'll never get bored of seeing flawed women on the screen.
Sometimes I write about my own life. And sometimes I write about situations I see my friends going through. Sometimes I write about a scene I saw in a movie. I take inspiration from all different places.
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