THE UNCERTAINTY of what is next is still lingering in the air but the decision to heal from last year is very much in progress. Attaching water to this motion the idea of anemones sprung to creative director Sarah Burton’s mind.
A cousin of the buttercup flower and commonly referred to as windflowers, nature once again finds its way into an Alexander McQueen collection.
Anemone Dress, AW21. Photograph: Paolo Roversi
The anemone regrows every year, and like fashion it returns – a constant cycle that symbolises our evolution. For the AW21 collection, this ephemeral flower gains immortality as the anemone print comes to life in a one-shoulder dress crafted from rose gold poly faille.
Anemone Print
Playing around with proportions of the Anemone Dress
Paper visualisation of dress
Rewinding back to the beginning of this creative process, photographs were taken up-close of the anemone. The images were crushed, re-photographed and printed to see the scale and what textures were created with the result being printed onto poly faille.
Toiled with multiple times on a mannequin, the McQueen team began to visualise how they could integrate this special print into a dress that ensured that the flower never lost its form.
The final Anemone Print
Hand-construction of the Alexander McQueen Anemone Dress
With a rough idea in mind, the print formed into a paper doll and edited by the designers. Once, they knew exactly how the dress would look, the dress was scaled up and the print arrived in the ateliers to be cut by hand and constructed into a garment.
Alexander McQueen Anemone Dress
Feminine in nature, powerful in design and striking in colour, this dress displays the core ingredients to an Alexander McQueen dress– and isn’t she beautiful.
by Imogen Clark
The creation images of the Anemone Dress were photographed by Ruby Phular