A Visit to the McQueen Roses Exhibition at the Bond Street Store

For a Fashion Flashback Friday...lets take a look at my visit to the Bond Street McQueen store in December. 

It was lovely to be able to head back to the capital and visit the McQueen store on Old Bond Street again. I haven’t been back to visit the exhibition space since before the first lockdown and it was nice to touch base with any changes to the space and see some fashion up close! Something I haven’t been able to see but through a screen for quite a while! :D

The current exhibition focuses on the theme of Roses, and the floral inspiration that forms and integral part of the brands collections. The displays take you on a tour of the full creation process; initial inspiration, ideas development, sampling, testing, toiling and the final outcomes.

As an educator, I think this space is a wonderful area for students to come and see how a collection is developed and built. As much as we try to impart the ways of the industry in our classes, nothing beats being able to see physical examples of sketch development of an idea if it isn’t right, or the multiple toile testing for a sleeve (multiple toiles for a single sleeve are on show to demonstrate the rigorous testing of ideas to ensure that the look and silhouette is right). The paper placements of embroidery or beaded details to test the scale are also great to look at.

I did get a little confused when I saw the flower dress from the Spring/ Summer 2007 collection. I thought at the time (back when I was an undergraduate student) that the dress was created with real flowers, but when looking at it, the flowers were predominantly silk. However, when speaking to one of the archivists, she explained that yes, the original was real flowers and some have even been dried and are sewn on to the dress, but the remaining flowers were replaced with silk ones to preserve the piece for longer. Such a wonderful idea to dry the original flowers and feature them on the dress; the origins are never truly forgotten.

This is such a wonderful space to visit; I wish more designers and brands did something like this as seeing the comparisons between different industry working methods would be invaluable to fashion students (and enjoyable for the educators too!). The Roses exhibition is on for a few more months so if you’re passing, head up to the top floor to see this lovely collection of work.