A peak at McQueen's Target line.
Alexander McQueen's Target line could not be more fitting in this time of change. He decided to do the collection, launching in March and retailing for under $129.99, because he wants to reach across the pond, and then to a handful of states and shake hands via his clothes with residents of Indiana, Iowa, and Kansas. He tells WWD:
“Apart from the East and West Coasts, my company doesn’t have any visibility in the U.S.,” he said. “I always liked the idea of people in the Midwest wearing my clothes. The idea of this upstart from London going where people haven’t heard of me, I think that was interesting to me. I think it’s quite adventurous of Target.”
He calls it adventurous, we call it genius. McQueen's goals are at once modest and lofty. He doesn't ask that Iowans even remember his name, but just the feeling of the East End underground music scene his clothes are meant to impart. "If you start to give the whole of America that sense of where I’m from, the underground music scene, it’s not so much about a logo, it’s more about a feeling,” he tells WWD. He hopes to use the Target line to leverage distribution of his lower-priced McQ line across the States. “There is no way the main line could go to Middle America,” he says. So sad, but so true. Equally sad: McQueen said this would be his only diffusion line for Target or a similar retailer. “I don’t like to repeat myself … If I do it all the time, it dilutes the concept,” he says. Which is why we love him.
McQueen on Target [WWD]
