The Ornamented Being

” … The little mermaid lifted her glorified eyes towards the sun, and felt them, for the first time, filling with tears. On the ship, in which she had left the prince, there were life and noise; she saw him and his beautiful bride searching for her; sorrowfully they gazed at the pearly foam, as if they knew she had thrown herself into the waves. Unseen she kissed the forehead of her bride, and fanned the prince, and then mounted with the other children of the air to a rosy cloud that floated through the aether… . “

The Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Anderson

Natalia Vodianova in Alexander McQueen

In McQueen’s Words

“There’s blood beneath every layer of skin.”

The Observer Magazine, October 7, 2001

If I told you I didn’t pause and get a little teary eyed when I read 1969-2010 I’d be lying.

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010) Spring/Summer 2010 The Met. 

I’m glad that at the very least it’s in a good home where it will be forever immortalized and continue to inspire artists for years to come.  Almost a year later I still can’t believe he’s gone. 

I still remember exactly what I was doing and where I was when I heard the news. It felt like the world was thrown off the axis: http://lyzelynch.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/mcqueen/

Here is what The Met has to say:  number of gowns in Alexander McQueen’s “Transitions” collection of spring/summer 2003 appear to be poetic renderings of a disaster at sea. While a similar dress appeared colored like the plumage of a tropical bird, this gown of sand-colored organza recalls the mille-feuille ridging on the surface of a shell. The hem of the skirt, like the wavy lip of a giant mollusk, further emphasizes the seashell quality of the gown. But unlike Aphrodite, who was born in the foam of the sea and borne to shore on a scallop, McQueen’s beauty is a bruised pearl encased in a deconstructing oyster, the tumbled survivor of the violent action of waves.