Top left and background: Frans Pourbus II Portrait of Louis XIII, King of France as a boy c. 1616 (detail), The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William May Garland. Photo © Museum Associates / LACMA; Centre: Alexander McQueen Look 30 (detail), from the Dante collection, autumn–winter 1996–97, Christ Church, London, 1996. Photo © Robert Fairer © Alexander McQueen. Model: Kristen McMenamy; Bottom: Alexander McQueen Look 15 (detail), from the Horn of Plenty collection, autumn–winter 2009–10, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, 10 March 2009. Photo © Robert Fairer © Alexander McQueen. Model: Kamila Filipcikova

MUSINGS ON McQUEEN: McQUEEN’S RUNWAYS, 3PM

Robert Fairer, who worked with McQueen and whose photographs feature in the exhibition, shares his reflections on collaborating with the designer – discussing McQueen’s studio practice and process of working, as well as his carefully curated runway shows that were an experience in themselves. ​ 

Host

Glynis Traill-Nash is one of Australia’s most respected and experienced fashion writers and commentators. For two decades, her engaging, informative – and opinionated – writing has endeared her to readers, most recently at The Australian where she was Fashion Editor for 10 years. She has held similar roles at the Sunday Telegraph, In Style, Grazia and The Sun-Herald, and written for titles including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and The Sydney Morning Herald.

With a suitcase always (appropriately) packed, Glynis has traversed the globe in the name of fashion, from Paris haute couture to New York, London and Milan Fashion Weeks, from Copenhagen to Tokyo, Darwin to Dallas, Berlin to Bendigo and beyond. She is a coveted public speaker and facilitator and has worked with many of this country’s leading institutions including the National Gallery of Victoria, Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, the Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Sydney Writers’ Festival and Melbourne Fashion Festival.

Speakers

Robert Fairer is a British photographer who has documented the zeitgeist of the fashion industry since the early 1990s. He has, for over three decades, mastered the art of backstage photography, and his work has been featured in Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Visionaire, i-D and The New York Times. Spanning celebrity, advertising and editorial, his clients include Fendi, Lanvin, Tom Ford and Versace. His work has been exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Design Museum, LACMA and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. In 2021 his first solo exhibition, Robert Fairer: Backstage Pass, was held at SCAD Fash Museum of Fashion. He has published over five monographs including Karl Lagerfeld Unseen: The Chanel Years (2022), John Galliano for Dior (2019), Marc Jacobs: Unseen (2018), John Galliano: Unseen (2017) and Alexander McQueen: Unseen (2016).

Danielle Whitfield is Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Since joining the NGV Danielle has curated numerous exhibitions and spoken and published widely on the history of Australian and international fashion. Recent projects and scholarly contributions include Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse (2022), Collecting Comme (2019), The Krystyna Campbell-Pretty Fashion Gift (2019) and The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture (2017).