Journal

Archive Study

The Mira Chai-Hyde Alexander McQueen Archive

Garments, photographs and working papers kept through friendship. Mira Chai-Hyde’s archive brings the life around McQueen into view.

Models seated backstage before an Alexander McQueen presentation

Introduction

Mira Chai-Hyde knew Alexander McQueen as Lee. Their friendship grew around the Hoxton studio, where work and daily life shared the same rooms.

Garments arrived as gifts, exchanges and pieces made for her. She kept the photographs, invitations and working papers too. Catalogued by Three Over Six, more than 600 objects preserve that closeness to the making of the collections.

Backstage portrait from Alexander McQueen's Irere, showing a model with radiating eye adornments
Backstage portrait from Alexander McQueen's Irere, showing a model with feathered face adornment

Irere, Spring/Summer 2003. Shaun Leane ear cuffs. Archive items IRERE12 and IRERE01. © Mira Chai-Hyde

Archive scope

A practice preserved in many forms

More than 150 garments span the formative London collections, the Givenchy years and later work through 2010. Prototypes, drawings, correspondence, invitations, photographs and recordings preserve the working world around them.

A sketch may sit beside the garment it anticipated; a photograph beside something given and kept. Those connections give this archive its particular depth.

01 The garment archive

The garment records encompass Highland Rape, The Hunger, Dante, La Poupée, It's a Jungle Out There, Joan, No. 13, VOSS and later collections through 2010, together with work from Givenchy Haute Couture.

02 Variants and works in development

Runway-worn and collection-associated garments sit beside prototypes, studio and production samples, commercial variants, custom-made works and altered pieces. Detached components remain catalogued with their principal garments.

03 Photography

Polaroids, personal snapshots and behind-the-scenes photographs record the studio, runway and life around the work, from The Hunger and Dante to Irere.

04 Drawings and working papers

Original design sketches, make-up studies and handwritten notes preserve ideas in development and the collaborative processes through which they were realised.

05 Correspondence and personal material

Letters, keepsakes and records of creative exchange retain a private register of the relationships that sustained the work beyond the runway.

06 Show and exhibition records

Invitations, backstage passes, lookbooks, runway recordings and rare museum documentation place individual objects within their original moments of presentation and later interpretation.

07 Accessories and jewellery

Footwear, belts, headpieces and jewellery—including work associated with Shaun Leane—extend the archive's record of silhouette, body and performance beyond the garment.

Four black-and-white archival Polaroids from the Mira Chai-Hyde Alexander McQueen archive
Images 195, 202, 201 and 196. Backstage at Alexander McQueen’s The Hunger, Spring/Summer 1996. © Gary Wallis

Formation

Within the life of the work

Mira knew McQueen as Lee. In 1990s Hoxton, his studio and her home occupied the same building; for nearly two years, he lived in her loft. Friendship, work and daily life overlapped. She cut his hair, worked on menswear presentations and contributed to campaigns and grooming.

Garments came as gifts, studio pieces and exchanges for work. Photographs and invitations remained because Mira had been there. The archive's provenance is therefore not incidental to its meaning: it records the circumstances in which the objects were made, used and kept.

Archive item MCQDANTE1996, Alexander McQueen Dante Autumn/Winter 1996–97 show credits card naming Mira Chai-Hyde and Kinuko for menswear hair and grooming
Dante production credits, Autumn/Winter 1996–97. Archive item MCQDANTE1996. © Three Over Six
Original fashion illustration in pencil and biro by Alexander McQueen, archive item Sketch16
Fashion illustration in pencil and biro attributed to the Alexander McQueen studio, archive item Sketch18

Sketch16, by Alexander McQueen; Sketch18, attributed to the studio. Pencil and biro. © Three Over Six

Chronology

The archive in time

Read chronologically, the archive moves through garments and the documents that surrounded them. Its strength lies in the continuity between the early London collections, the Givenchy years and later work through 2010.

1995–96 Highland Rape, The Hunger and Dante

Garments and early collection material are joined by original sketches, backstage photography and show documentation.

1997–98 La Poupée to Joan

Garments, studies, invitations, passes and production records preserve the collections alongside their making and presentation.

1999–2001 No. 13, The Overlook and VOSS

Runway garments sit with lookbooks, credits, correspondence and internal show material.

2003–06 Irere to Widows of Culloden

Garments, accessories and backstage photographs record the increasing synthesis of clothing, image and performance.

2007–10 Sarabande to Plato's Atlantis

Later runway garments, studio pieces and production samples extend the material record through McQueen's final complete collection.

Parallel practices

Across two houses

The archive holds work from McQueen's own label alongside Givenchy Haute Couture, preserving the years in which he developed two distinct practices at once. Garments are joined by working material, including make-up studies associated with Eclect Dissect and photographs made during Givenchy's presentation in Japan.

Placed together, these records allow differences in construction, proportion and atelier finish to be read directly. They also show how recurring ideas moved between the freedom of McQueen's London practice and the disciplines of the couture house.

The catalogue

The catalogue

Three Over Six records each object’s material, attribution, condition and history. Mira’s recollections remain in her name, alongside the garments and documents that carry their own evidence.

01 Identification

Designer, collection, date, object type and known relationship to the studio.

02 Physical record

Materials, construction, labels, marks, size and measurements where recorded.

03 Condition

Wear, alteration, loss and evidence of use are described without embellishment.

04 Provenance and research

Ownership, recollection, runway imagery and published sources are recorded as distinct forms of evidence.

Private acquisition

The archive is offered through Three Over Six

The Mira Chai-Hyde Alexander McQueen Archive is available for private acquisition through Three Over Six. Detailed catalogues, condition records and supporting documentation are available to institutions and private collectors upon request.

Enquire about the archive

Archive record

The Mira Chai-Hyde Archive

Designer
Alexander McQueen (British, 1969-2010)
Archive period
1995–2010
Extent
More than 600 catalogued objects
Contents
Garments, prototypes, studio samples, accessories, photographs, works on paper, show material and ephemera
Houses
Alexander McQueen and Givenchy
Custodian
Mira Chai-Hyde
Status
Available for private acquisition through Three Over Six
Documentation
Catalogued and researched by Three Over Six
Acknowledgements
Research assistance: John Matheson, founder of McQueen Vault.
Appraisal and specialist advice: Patricia Frost, independent adviser on fashion and textiles.