With McQueen's Met Moment, Sales Surge on eBay

By Lexi Green
May 25, 2011

Alexander McQueen exhibition

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum in New York

Scarcely a year after his tragic death, top Fashion Designer Alexander McQueen is bigger, bolder and more buzzed about than ever—just, we imagine, as the designer himself would have wanted it. First, there was the dress—the Grace Kelly-inspired beauty worn by Kate Middleton to marry Prince William and designed by Sarah Burton, Alexander McQueen's successor, for the House of McQueen. Days later in New York, the Met Gala, the most important fashion event of the year, celebrated the opening of "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty," honoring the British couturier.

McQueen at The Met

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With the Alexander McQueen party now over, those of us who don't demand a red carpet entrance have the chance to check out the exhibition, fashion exhibit on view through July. The 100 ensembles and 70 accessories featured at the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute span 19 years, from Alexander McQueen's postgraduate collection in 1992 to his posthumous collection in February 2010. To be expected, the Met's Alexander McQueen exhibition, much like the top fashion designer's work, is dark, moody, often jarring, and desperately romantic. Visitors to the Met get a view of famous Alexander McQueen dresses, headpieces, and even his creative thought process as they walk through six gorgeously decorated and informative galleries.

The fashion exhibition’s first gallery, called the Romantic Mind, is a stark room covered in concrete that showcases Alexander McQueen’s first, more straightforward, pieces. It opens into the Romantic Mind and Cabinet of Curiosities galleries, two rooms that display McQueen’s devotion to darkly romantic, Victorian gothic themes. Along with his clothing, there are examples of accessories collaborations with milliners like Dai Reese and Phillip Treacy throughout the exhibit. In the next gallery, called Romantic Nationalism, Alexander McQueen’s patriotism for his Scottish roots and his love of London are explored. Mannequins adorned in McQueen tartan, red velvet and black lace are set against dramatic wooden backdrops. The final galleries take on a more modern look as they explore the themes of Romantic Exoticism, Primitivism and Naturalism. Galleries filled with mirrors, rusty metal, and white acrylic serve as a set for showcasing McQueen's interest in the Far East, the avant garde, and the contrasts between nature and technology.

Alexander McQueen exhibition

“There’s something . . . kind of Edgar Allan Poe, kind of deep and kind of melancholic about my collections,” said McQueen, whose lifespan of work, when seen together, is best described as achingly beautiful; not only because it celebrates the work of an artist who is now gone, but also because the work itself is often jarring and uncomfortable, while still lovely, ethereal and meticulously crafted.

The curator of the exhibition, Andrew Bolton, describes Alexander McQueen’s ability to at once disturb and melt the hearts of his fans via his creations. “McQueen loved to provoke and loved to provoke you emotionally,” Bolton says. “I think he did that by tapping into one’s cultural anxieties, or one’s uncertainties, or one’s hopes, or one’s desires.”

Alexander McQueen exhibition

On eBay online auctions, sales for "Alexander McQueen" are up 25 percent in the past month compared to approximately one year ago, while the total number of bids is up 22 percent in the same period.