Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen looks to Scottish crafts for inspiration for Paris Fashion Week
The house’s spring-summer collection features Shetland lace, Celtic worsted wool plaid and checkered jackets
Sarah Burton has always had a knack for scouting artisanal expertise with a story and incorporating it seamlessly into her collections.
In a previous collection, Burton cited Spitalfields silk weavers for inspiration. For the spring-summer 2017 series, the designer enlisted artisanal crafts from Scotland’s Shetland Island.
The new show venue- an orangerie at Jardin du Luxembourg – housed an uneven catwalk to echo the terrain of the Scottish island. A patchwork of woven rugs covered the runway, paying tribute to the craftsmanship of the island’s artisans.
Weaving the traditional crafts of Shetland lace, Celtic worsted wool plaid and Fair Isle-inspired knits into the spring-summer collection, Alexander McQueen featured some of the most breathtaking ensembles in Paris which truly earned Burton a standing ovation as she took a bow.
The finale dress, for example, was an elaborate tulle dress with cascading strings of beading, its white ruffled train mimicking a shipwreck scene of crashing waves in silver sequins.
The fantasy gown followed a series of scrumptiously embellished tulle dresses adorned with sea creature motifs. Delicate Shetland lace was made into floor-grazing gowns or spider-web-look-alike tops. The intimate, light and elaborate pieces were matched with leather harnesses gathered in the upper torso for a balance of toughness and fragility.