Victorian Era fashion and Its Influence on Alexander McQueen’s Design

    In a fast-paced, driven society, more and more people tend to pursue fashion, which is usually defined as a general term of a popular style or practice, especially in clothing. However, their understanding of fashion is superficial. Fashion was actually born in prehistoric times when men and women wore fur to cover their bodies. People later developed the ideas of fashion with five elements that have survived through the centuries: color, shape, size, texture and balance of the garments. Of the major periods of fashion, the Victorian era stood out with its lively style of ornamentation and left a great impact on trends to follow. 

    Coco Chanel once said, “Fashion changes, but style endures”. The Victorian style has endured through years and influenced many modern designers, including Alexander McQueen, who is best known for his versatility and crazy arrangements that emulate the stylings of the Victorian era.

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    When you examine McQueen’s work on his Victorian collection, you will find profound inspiration originating from the mid-late 19th Century. The dress on the right comes from his much-lauded Victorian line. The waist section of the dress is every rigid and tight, which reflects the Victorian image perfectly. What I am really interested in is the fabric that McQueen used on the dress. The fabric is a luxurious gold color, which was commonly used in the royal families. However, its texture is significantly different. Instead of the types of laces seen in the dress on the left, layers and layers of feather-like fabrics were used on McQueen’s dress to create a modern look. Some people might find such design a little bit unacceptable; however, I think such innovation is the essence of fashion.

    The more I look at the women from the Victorian era, the more I think of an old adage: “a woman has to suffer to be beautiful”. 

    I don’t know how the women from that period endured their thousand-pound clothes consisting of a crinoline cage, a corset, excessively large skirts and overly ornate hats, but I am sure that they moved with great panache and sweat.

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    The white dress above is from the aforementioned collection by Alexander McQueen. Though he clearly shirked many of the aspects of the original style in favor of a sleeker, more modern look, McQueen still kept several elements from the Victorian fashion. If you turn your attention to the painting on the right, it depicts the color of two women’s dresses. It is hardly coincidental that the  of the top worn by the model to the left and that of the red dress in the painting on the right are almost identical.

    Stylistically, even though McQueen abandoned the crinoline, he still made the skirt part large enough to contrast with the excessively skinny waist of the dress. 

    To merely claim that McQueen’s inspiration for his Victorian collection comes directly from the Victorian style would be far too arbitrary. However, when comparing his works and many of the dresses from the Victorian period, anyone could easily see the parallels between these exemplary samples of high end fashion at their respective times.