Alexander McQueen Expands Its Arts Education Support For Youths
A feel-good project that help make creative arts education more accessible for youths.
Since Alexander McQueen creative director Sarah Burton took over the reins at the house a decade ago, she has steadily embraced and showcased a softer side to the label.
She's also in the midst of positioning the brand as one that actively champions creative talents early on in their lives – for example, Alexander McQueen recently announced its financial support for A Team Arts Education, a youth arts education organisation in London, but that's not their only initiative to make fashion education a more accessible place.
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Alexander McQueen creative director Sarah Burton took to South Wales to collaborate with Ffasiwn Stiwdio, a photography-based studio that works with professional artists, communities, and youth workers to deliver creative arts workshops to young people living in underfunded areas.
Last June, Burton took to the Welsh region to South Wales to collaborate with Ffasiwn Stiwdio, a photography-based studio that works with professional artists, communities, and youth workers to deliver creative arts workshops to young people living in underfunded areas.
Over several months last year, the studio (started by Welsh creative director and filmmaker Charlotte James and French documentary photographer Clementine Schneidermann in 2015) collaborated with Alexander McQueen’s atelier.
A participant's sketch of a look from Alexander McQueen's Fall/Winter 2020 collection.
The latter sent members of their in-house embroidery, studio and education teams to the Welsh county borough of Blaenau Gwen to hold a series of immersive fashion, photography and embroidery workshops to encourage the youth participants to explore their own vision.
The young people’s responses – through their sketches, research with their families, writing, embroidery, photographs and fittings conducted with the McQueen atelier – culminated in a four-day location shoot by Schneidermann and James around various scenic locations in Wales.
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Youth participants from this project were shot in various locations around South Wales.
“We’ve all been inspired by the experience of being able to make a practical connection with this collaboration with young people in Wales," says Burton.
"Community values and the belief in offering creative opportunities to young people are at the heart of what we believe at Alexander McQueen, and this record of what we all learned together last year is a testament to what transformative things can happen everywhere when empowering equal access to creative ideas.”
Catch the project in its entirety in the newly released film below.
