The Extravagance of a 1990's/Early 2000's Fashion Show

With tomorrow declaring the opening day of the Alexander McQueen exhibition Savage Beauty at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, I thought I'd write a blog post on how there are little to no extravagance left in fashion, and how that saddens me a little bit as an aspiring designer myself. Maybe it's just me, being trapped in my love for fashion shows of this era, but you just don't seem to get a spectacle show anymore, by this I mean 60+ looks, a huge theatrical experience, garments being seen as art almost? etc. I understand there is a need to be successful nowadays, being a fashion designer is more of a business proposition than ever before and being too commercial has overtook the need to infuse creativity almost. The need to sell the clothes you design of course affects any potential creativity. But I always remember the runway to be what dreams are made of (sometimes nightmares) and to provoke an un-imaginable imagination. Is it because we no longer have Alexander McQueen with us anymore? John Galliano's dismissal from Dior? Thierry Mugler no longer Creative Director of his namesake label, I mean Thierry Mugler's 20th Anniversary presented 300 looks! If that isn't a spectacular moment in fashion, what is? Or is it like I said previously, fashion houses have become too commercial and the need to sell the clothes is vital? Or that simply because times have changed? I don't know, but what I do know is that this has been running through my mind for quite a while now. Maybe it is because Savage Beauty opens it's doors to the public tomorrow and that John Galliano was appointed Creative Director at Maison Margiela last Autumn. Gone are the days in which we'll see automobile robots spray-paint a dress worn by Shalom Harlow rotating on a wooden plinth. A huge mirrored cube have all four walls smash against the floor revealing a naked British journalist Michelle Olley wearing only a gas mask hooked up with tubes and wires in McQueen's insane asylum VOSS2001. Galliano at Dior: The shotgun-wielding models sent down the super-long runway at what was later described as the "Matrix" Haute Couture collection in 1999 and just one year later an almost family-staged Dior Haute Couture wedding back in 2000. There's honestly many more collections I could have mentioned just then, but I'm curious to know what was your favourite show-stopping moment with added shock value by either Alexander McQueen or John Galliano? Leave a comment below. I don't want to say there aren't any designers who put on a "show" anymore because there are, those who stand out to me in an extravagant way are New York-based designer phenomenon Thom Browne who always excites me every season with his couture take on ready-to-wear and of course Karl Lagerfeld's collections for Chanel remain at the height of the spectacular scale in fashion amongst today. I also don't want to leave you with a blog post to read with no media as such, so here are my top five favourite moments from London's two most respected fashion designers of all time, Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. Enjoy!

The Wolf of High Street

xxx