Yale University Press is honoring the fashion designer Alexander McQueen with two different publications at Book Expo. Alexander McQueen: Unseen by Robert Fairer debuts in November. The press’s art and architecture publisher, Patricia Fidler, notes, “What really grabbed me about this book is that McQueen himself is very evident in the photographs behind the scenes at fashion shows. It’s interesting to watch and see glimpses of him trying to pin somebody’s dress together, and you see these amazing, creative costumes and fashion designs.”
In addition, the press is showcasing an earlier book that it distributes, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty by Andrew Bolton, which was published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with its Costume Institute exhibit of the same name in 2011. “That book has never gone out of print,” Fidler tells Show Daily, “and we want to celebrate that fact. Here at BEA we want to make sure that accounts and everyone in that particular world are aware that we have this extraordinary book on our backlist and we’re pleased to be able to have a complement to it. There’s never ever going to be a book that competes with the Metropolitan book, but there’s more to learn about, understand, and appreciate with regard to this particular designer. The new publication has a completely different angle on who McQueen was than the earlier book.”
As to why there is such a fascination about the designer who died at the pinnacle of his success at the age of 40, Fidler says, “We ask ourselves that question a lot. I think there are multiple answers. Part of it is, sadly, that he is someone who took his own life at a very young age, and some of the intrigue is people trying to understand that. There’s also the mystery associated with someone who was just becoming world renowned. His work was being acknowledged in a way that he had long struggled to achieve. And there’s the fact that the designs are gorgeous, fantastic, surprising, innovative, and beautiful, and that many famous people have worn his clothing. That continues to keep his name in the spotlight.”
To help promote the two books, Yale University Press is conducting a raffle at its booth (610) for one of McQueen’s unique skull-design scarves. The raffle runs from this afternoon through Friday morning. The drawing for the winner will take place Friday afternoon. “We thought it would be nice to have a raffle to call attention to the fact that we have these books on our list,” Fidler says, “and that it would be great to have somebody walk away with an actual McQueen garment.”
