Diving for McQueen

The New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn meets Alexander McQueen Creative Director Sarah Burton at the label’s Paris atelier to explore the house’s intricate, marine-inspired Spring/Summer 2012 collection in Dustin Lynn’s stunning portrait film. Displaying a love and knowledge of fashion far beyond the catwalk, Horyn’s notorious studio visits define her style as a journalist, producing lyrical portraits of designers truly dedicated to the rigor of cutting and creating clothes. Before becoming head of the fashion house, Burton worked as McQueen’s right hand for 14 years. “With Sarah, it has a lot to do with the training she has had at McQueen, and just knowing what the McQueen studio had been like under Lee,” says Horyn of Burton’s qualification for the job. “It was always a place where it was about the technique and craft.” After the turmoil following McQueen's tragic suicide last year, the provocative label has returned stronger than ever with sumptuously beautiful collections, the record-breaking Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute attracting over 650,000 visitors, and Burton designing the Duchess of Cambridge’s much-lauded gown for the royal wedding.