Here is an interview by Dazed Digital with Sarah Burton on Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2013 at Paris Fashion Week. It is an interesting representation of the connection between femininity and the female form involving nature.
Dazed Digital: What was the starting point?
Sarah Burton: Everything was exploding last season so I really wanted to really bring it back to what the silhouettes of the house were, by embracing femininity and all female forms and looking at the hips, the waist and the bust. Then we began to peel it away as I wanted it to feel erotic but not overtly sexual.
DD: How did you connect bees with the sexual undertones of the collection?
Sarah Burton: It was about nature and femininity. There's always a sense of nature in what we do like referencing pollination in bees. It was meant to be quite celebratory.
DD: Tell us a little about the historical shapes – the panniers, the corsets and the bustles?
Sarah Burton: It's not meant to be historical. It's all the underpinnings of different periods. We did look at Alberto Vargas but we also looked at everything used to accentuate the female form.
DD: The moulded corsets were quite brilliant…
Sarah Burton: Yes, we wanted to use corsets but we didn't want them to be heavy, because when you think corsetry, you always feel it might be restrictive. I wanted them to feel light. They're all moulded tortoiseshell, moulded onto the body with jewelled bees in them.
DD: So it's a celebration of the female form and ultimately women?
Sarah Burton: Yes, us lot!
