Nick Waplington/Alexander McQueen: Working Process – Tate Britain

At Tate Britain in order to attend some exhibitions, I came across a photography exhibition called Nick Waplington/Alexander McQueen: Working Process. The exhibition consists of a selection of photos taken by Waplington at McQueen’s invitation, concerning the latter’s final ready-to-wear collection for A/W 2009 known as The Horn of Plenty! Everything But the Kitchen Sink. As I have a ticket for the McQueen exhibition at the V&A later this year, I thought it would be a good idea to visit this one too.

The exhibition documents the process of creating the collection from start to finish, beginning with pictures of rubbish tips and ending with images of the catwalk. In between you see McQueen and his assistants designing, creating and constructing the costumes. The collection acted as a satirical and provocative retrospective of his career, with costumes made from fine silks designed to look like rubbish bags and an exaggerated emphasis on the models’ features. I found the exhibition interesting and it whetted my appetite for the larger exhibition at the V&A later on.