It may be bizarre, but it’s certainly a novel, or maybe the ultimate way to pay homage to a fashion icon. Haute couture designer Alexander McQueen spent a lifetime donning headlines in the fashion world, and made an exit in the same manner in 2010, when he committed suicide; but it seems his news-making days aren’t over yet.
A Slovenian fashion design student has introduced a line of leather jackets and handbags made from McQueen’s skin! Tina Gorjac studied under McQueen, and is now all set to launch her own line called ‘Pure Human’, which has been created from lab-produced, leather-like tissue using the DNA of the fashion guru.
In 1992, Alexander McQueen had placed locks of his own hair in his first collection, titled ‘Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims’. Gorjac asked permission to access and experiment with the hair, having it scientifically modified by culturing cells to produce patches of skin which are similar to animal hide. She then proceeded to turn the ‘McQueen-brand leather’ into handbags, purses and jackets by tanning, cutting and sewing it.
Gorjac insists that contrary to the media hype, her project is not the outcome of a ‘gruesome, creepy mindset‘ but rather, she wants to promote sustainable solutions in the fashion world, and using human skin could be one way to live ‘in style’. It remains to see whether the Alexander McQueen pieces will be as sought after as the designer was himself.