McQueen Bee

  I had silently given up hope on Sarah Burton as I processed her collection last season, but this season I'm eating my own words. Her spring 2013 collection for Alexander McQueen is probably one of my favorite collections this season, maybe ever. The honeycomb motif blew my mind, and the colors paired with it were just an oxymoron. I love honey, don't get me wrong, but the collection was creepy. This collection was a manifestation of a phobia of bees. Creepy.

  Besides making me realize why my friends are so scared of bees, the colors are so distinctly English. I thought the colors embodied the English court around the time of the English Reformation - Henry VIII, Mary Tudor, Anne Boleyn. Burton was not too pretentious about giving it an English flair either. She did not make a collection around English rockstars or Cambridge scholars, but it was something distinctly new with references all over the place. The colors is one aspect that gave it that feel of a true English brand.

  The colors especially reminded me of the portraits of English royalty during the English Reformation - or at least, the people that slept with English royalty. 

Catherine of Aragon

Anne Boleyn

Mary I of England

Elizabeth I of England