As a place for inspiration Britain is the best in the world. You’re inspired by the anarchy in the country.’ The final images, which kept the hands and eliminated the hardware, worked. Their focus is on the clothing, and the garments look natural because they were photographed on living bodies. The shots are dramatic and better reflect how McQueen’s clothes are made to be seen. I have always loved the mechanics of nature and to a greater or lesser extent my work is always informed by that.’ As with any works of art in The Met collection, the staff preserves and protects all accessioned costumes from deterioration. For this reason, no one may wear a garment after it enters the collection. You were able to photograph McQueen’s works on live models because they weren’t accessioned Museum objects, right? When you see a woman wearing McQueen, there's a certain hardness to the clothes that makes her look powerful. It kind of fends people off."

Kate Bethune, Senior Research Assistant, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. ‘Encyclopedia of Collections’ in Alexander McQueen, ed. Claire Wilcox, V&A Publishing 2015. There has to be a sinister aspect, whether it’s melancholy or sadomasochist. I think everyone has a deep sexuality, and sometimes it’s good to use a little of it – and sometimes a lot of it – like a masquerade.’ It's hard to find garments like that amid the high street's shapeless viscose and denim. McQueen's collections were art. As Burton says: Like Byron, Beethoven, and Delacroix, McQueen is an exemplar of the Romantic individual, the hero-artist who staunchly followed the dictates of his inspiration. As a designer, he doggedly promoted freedom of thought and expression and championed the authority of the imagination.” Alexander McQueen (17 March 1969 - 11 February 2010) was an icon in the fashion industry. He is currently the subject of a spectacular exhibition of his works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and this book serves as a catalogue for that exhibition. From the lenticular cover by Gary James McQueen ('Lenticular printing is a technology in which a lenticular lens is used to produce images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles') to the layout or deign of the book itself to the extraordinary photography (by Sølve Sundsbø) this book is an art piece by itself.Right. All the works were part of McQueen’s archive and we photographed them there. The models we hired had worked as dress models for McQueen, so they were familiar with wearing his garments. We shot the photographs in December 2010, on a very fast schedule. We had to start printing the book in February so that copies would arrive from the Italian printer in time for the show’s opening in May. One of the things that made the Savage Beauty catalogue such a success is the evocative imagery by fashion photographer Sølve Sundsbø, and I think readers might be interested to know that there is a little more to the photographs than meets the eye. How did these images come to be?

McQueen's romantic sensibility propelled his creativity and advanced his fashion in directions both unimagined and unprecedented. His individualistic and defiant vision was augmented by an acute sense of time and place, and a preoccupation with the exotic and the untamed. Filtered through a powerful modernity McQueen's work was, above all, driven by his fascination with the beauty and savagery of the natural world. The finale was inspired by a photograph by Joel-Peter Witkin entitled Sanitarium (1983), which depicted a voluptuous woman connected via a breathing tube to a stuffed monkey. On McQueen's catwalk, the role was played by the fetish writer Michelle Olley.

14 March - 2 August 2015

More people can understand the dress if it's tarnished and distressed. If you walked out in the first dress you'd be setting yourself apart form everyone but if you wore the second one people would be able to accept you. I find that untouchable Hollywood glamour alienating. It has no relevance to the way I live my life. Remember where you came from. The second dress is beautiful in a different and more authentic way. Published to coincide with the exhibition the title opens with a preface from Andrew Bolton, curator of The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and an introduction by Susannah Frankel, Fashion Editor with The Independent newspaper and friend of McQueen. After this, the book is divided into sections such as ‘The Romantic Mind’, ‘Romantic Primitivism’ and ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’, mirroring the layout of the exhibition. What do you think most contributes to the popularity and longevity of this book over the past decade? The lenticulars are manufactured in Italy and each one is secured to the book by hand with strong, double-sided tape. The bindery is in Calenzano, near Prato, which had a strong textile industry. Some of the materials that McQueen used were made there, so it was nice for the book to have this additional connection to his work.