Alexander McQueen Embarks on a Fantasy-Filled Adventure in Wales
"I would marry a merman, they trick captains, create storms, wreck ships."
In the early throes of COVID-19, Alexander McQueen, along with Charlotte James and Clémentine Schneidermann of Ffasiwn Stiwdio, began a fascinating journey of mermaids and ladies in the lake, of embroidery and illustration. Within the quaint parish of Merthyr Tydfil, some 20 kilometers north of Cardiff, the Maison had begun to silently establish a program for local Welsh youth in anticipation of the Wales-inspired Fall/Winter 2020 collection.
With the Creative Director of Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton, the group worked through a series of remote training, culminating in a photoshoot. Burton and Alexander McQueen casting director Jess Hallett, provided virtual training in casting, and fittings remotely instructed by the atelier team.
Burton said “We’ve all been inspired by the experience of being able to make a practical connection with this collaboration with young people in Wales. Community values and the belief in offering creative opportunities to young people are at the heart of what we believe at Alexander McQueen, and this record of what we all learned together last year is a testament to what transformative things can happen everywhere when empowering equal access to creative ideas.”
Throughout the program, the youth were provided a range of artistic mediums to document the process: sketchbooks, Polaroids, and one-on-one embroidery tutorials to create idiosyncratic records of each journey. "To us, fashion has never been a goal in itself, but more an excuse to generate ideas and opportunities," Schneidermann said. "Our main focus has always been photography and creative workshops in the broadest sense. We try to raise an awareness, and sense of familiarity with creative skills and art in general through the workshops and the photography shoots."
The workshop, photographs, and youth work have come together in a fashion film, short documentary, and book.
