Love Looks Not with the Eyes: Thirteen Years with Lee Alexander McQueen

In 1997, fashion photographer and filmmaker Deniau met fashion’s notorious “bad boy,” Alexander McQueen, then 27, when she was asked to document the creation of his first haute couture collection for Givenchy. The two artists became close friends, and the designer gave Deniau exclusive backstage access for the next 13 years. In her evocative and elegiac introduction, the photographer remembers her dear friend and collaborator, who took his life in 2010 at age 40, and recounts striking moments from his oeuvre that she was able to capture on film. These vivid images include an ethereal Shalom Harlow in a virginal white dress from McQueen’s 1998 show, which was subsequently blasted with paint on the runway, and women adorned with flowers or feathers, or shrouded in antique Japanese screens. The kinetic color and black-and-white photographs document the fantastical, shocking spectacle of a McQueen show in action: hairdos trussed up with birds of prey; hubcaps strapped to foreheads; faces enhanced by extraterrestrial cheek prostheses. The images are sensual, spooky, and whimsical, playing up the drama of McQueen’s vision; like one of the designer’s fabulous garments, the photographs transform fashion into high art. The book is both an homage and a memorial; this celebration of McQueen’s vast, unique talent is also a eulogy for his tragic loss. 400 color and b&w photos. (Oct.)