Alexander McQueen VS Matthew Barney

After looking into the fashion of Alexander McQueen I have noticed that there seems to be a strange similarity between his style and the cinematic vision of Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle. One of the most obvious examples of this is if we are to take a look at one of Barney's recurring characters and put that alongside one of McQueen's t-shirt concepts.

Although there are obviously more high-fashion examples of this similarity, it is interesting to see how even McQueen's "highstreet" clothing has the same attention towards a bizarre piece of cloth covering a man's mouth. 

Another strange similarity is that both parties used a model called Aimee Mullins. What makes Mullins unique is that she was born with fibular hemimelia (missing fibula bones) and, as a consequence of this, had both of her legs amputated at the knee. In the case of McQueen she modelled in his London show, on a pair of hand-carved wooden prosthetic legs made from solid ash, with integral boots. The following image is of these leg-boots that where hand carved for the House of McQueen.

3 years after her controversial debut into the fashion world she appeared as a cheetah women in Barney's Cremaster 3. At this point it is obvious that Barney was the one that was highly influenced by McQueen as he had a tendency to implement the McQueen aesthetic to his work. However, rather than merely being a copycat I think that his usage of this aesthetic is a clean cut homage to McQueen and only further serves to fuel the impact his fashion has had on the world around him. 

The image above displays how Barney presentation of Aimee Mullins clearly plays homage to McQueen in the sense that he has made unique prosthetic legs that function as an extension of the cheetah/woman hybrid that he was trying to manufacture. To cap off this fleeting look at the similarities between Barney and McQueen I have sourced the following video, which gives a heads up contrast of a McQueen fashion show against clips from Barney's Cremaster Cycle. Have a look and see how you feel about the apparent aesthetic similarities.