Revered for the artistry and storytelling he brought the fashion world, Alexander McQueen drew inspiration from countless sources – death mask photographs, clock faces, Kubrick films. Quite a few of the British designer’s eclectic influences can be traced back to the many hours he spent in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, a world-renowned resource for art and design.
To celebrate McQueen’s legacy and connection to the V&A, the Alexander McQueen Research Library was born. Collating the reference books that most inspired his work, the collection includes historical pattern books, bird illustrations and photobooks of dried flowers and Victorian asylums. Read on for a list of works that made a mark on McQueen.
Libro de Geometria, Pratica y Traça by Juan de Alcega (out of print)
Leigh Bowery by Robert Violette
The Clans of the Scottish Highlands by James Logan
A New History of Photography by Michel Frizot
Harms Way: Lust & Madness, Murder & Mayhem : A Book of Photographs by Joel Peter-Witkin
Sam Taylor-Wood by Margo A. Crutchfield
The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Flora by Nick Knight
Cabinets of Curiosities by Patrick Mauries
Oeillades Ciselées en Branche by Georges Hugnet & Hans Bellmer (out of print)
Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel
The Birds of America by John James Audubon