ALL HAIL THE NEW McQUEEN
Alexander McQueen was the king of British fashion — and his brilliant legacy lives on in his scarf designer nephew Gary
THe latest trends are not always kind to us midlifers, but this season, the return of the silk scarf is surely a source of joy for all grown-up women.
This year’s most on-trend accessory — seen on the catwalks of Versace, Gucci and Balenciaga and currently ubiquitous on the High Street from M&S to Zara — provides an instant splash of colour or print, and works with just about everything else in your wardrobe.
Looped through jeans and worn as a belt; wound around the handle of a bag; tied in a bow around the neck and worn long and skinny, or employed in traditional style as an actual headscarf (see Melania Trump channelling Jackie O), it’s universally flattering and an instant style update.
One thing the silk scarf is not, however, is edgy. Often sweetly floral or a striking combo of flowers and stripes, it has rarely screamed fashion statement. Or at least, not until Gary James McQueen got his hands on it . . .
For McQueen (yes, that McQueen, of which more later) is a scarf designer with a difference. Where we expect flowery designs or Liberty print, paisley or tartan, he gives us skulls and blood vessels and human hair. While that might sound scary, in Gary’s hands, gory subject matter becomes great beauty, the detail absorbed into exquisite, abstract designs inspired by Victorian anatomical drawings.
They are scarves you can wear, or hang on the wall as works of art.
In some ways he is only following in the footsteps of his uncle, for Gary is the 39-year-old nephew of late, great, designer Alexander McQueen, who died in 2010.
Alexander’s famous scarves were decorated with their own skull motif, and fans of the McQueen brand will find a similarity in Gary’s richly Gothic, romantic prints. There is a gorgeous yet sinister appeal in Gary’s work that is reminiscent of his uncle.
His first collection of scarves in 2017 was dedicated to Alexander — and became instant collectors’ items.
‘A scarf is a canvas that can be a nice balance between a product you can wear and also keep and treasure,’ he tells me.
‘I like that scarves can be appreciated and owned by a wider audience who will read stories of their own into the designs. I love creating characters and worlds.’
He shared this love of stories with his uncle, who was only ten years older than him and whom he knew as Lee — Alexander was the designer’s second name, which his friend, the magazine editor Isabella Blow, insisted he use instead.
Lee
would babysit him, and bring round horror movies to watch — secretly, you imagine. Gary was terrified and thrilled in equal measure, and still treasures the moments he spent with his uncle as a child. They ‘ absorbed’ the same cultural influences, he thinks. Shows like McQueen’s celebrated 2007 Sarabande, with its highly Victorian, dark-coloured floral dresses, were inspired, believes Gary, by his ‘ nan’s wallpaper in Biggerstaff Road, east London’.
‘It was a smell as much as a look: lavender, smoke, granddad’s shaving foam and fishing tackle. There was so much cigarette smoke you couldn’t see the TV.’
Alexander/Lee went on to revolutionise fashion and become one of the world’s most feted designers.
But he and the rest of the family also knew far darker times. Lee was very close to his sister Janet — Gary’s mum — and knew that her husband was a violent man, who would smash up Gary’s toys and abuse her. Lee often witnessed the aftermath, and Gary now believes some of the demons that inspired his uncle’s most disturbing ideas came from that turbulent family life.
Yet the family genes were creative, too, and Gary undoubtedly learned at his uncle’s knee.
‘I did inherit something of the creative spirit he had. We are from the same gene pool, cut from the same cloth,’ he says haltingly. ‘Lee gave me a context for fashion that was more about art. He taught me how to develop ideas the right way. How to take things further and look outside the box.’
His scarves are luxurious. Made by Ratti, the legendary Italian silk house on Lake Como ( where humidity levels are perfect for the natural fibre), they have handrolled edges and a sensuous feel.
Ratti makes fabrics for the world’s best-known fashion houses, including Gucci, but had never come across prints as detailed as Gary’s. Perfectionism, it turns out, is a McQueen family trait.
His scarves may cost £250 for a 90cm square, but when you see how they’re made, from concept and development to creation, you understand why. A birds of paradise print, for example, was achieved by hiring a bird handler and painstakingly photographing the creature’s wings moving.
Scarves in his Spring/Summer collection, which showed at London Fashion Week, included names such as ‘solstice’ and ‘celestial’, combining images of tribal tattoos, pagan culture, star charts and what Gary describes as an ‘ endless summer feel’.
Gary learned the techniques while working as head textile designer on his uncle’s ready-towear menswear collections, but much of the technology has moved on since Alexander’s death and Gary works in a studio full of artists using cutting-edge 3D tech.
‘Technology has come on so much. Fifteen years ago it was drawn textiles with some photocopies. Then it moved on to photography, now it’s 3D creating things that don’t exist,’ says Gary.
Inspired by his printed scarves, he is also making kimonos you can wear or hang as art. ‘What I learned from Lee was that there’s no right or wrong way. Just because someone hasn’t done something before doesn’t mean it can’t be done.’
And so, by combining the trademark McQueen dark Gothic imagination with the very latest designer tech, even the demure silk scarf is revolutionised.
Alexander would approve.