Sarah Burton - Life after Lee Alexander Mcqueen

Sarah Burton is glad she agreed to take over from Mcqueen as his former label’s creative director. Its been almost two years since the death of the “genius” Lee Alexander McQueen. She said: "He was such a genius; inspiring and funny and an incredible man,I could never pretend to be him but when I look back now, I’m glad that I took the job -because it kept the studio alive in his spirit, and it kept the team together. Because what did he work so hard for all those years if it was all just going to disappear?"

Sarah Burton spoke as McQueen launched its first store in Beijing in October, in a just-released film created in collaboration with Hong Kong store Joyce. The designer, who also made the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress this year, spoke about the creation of this season’s most intricate dresses: the “broken plate” gowns – giving an idea of just what goes in to the famously couture-esque collection.

“We took a cast of a body and poured the porcelain so it fitted that body,” Sarah explained. “Then we hand-painted ten different plates, dissected them as if they were broken and then we engineered the image on to a bodice. Then we hand-cut all the pieces out from the mould we had and then we made each of those pieces again individually and numbered them. It was like a jigsaw puzzle!”

Fashion Critic Cathy Horyn Enters the Folds of Sarah Burton's Spring 2012 McQueen Collection