Free Designer Pattern: Alexander McQueen Kimono Jacket

Photo: Nick Knight. Image via SHOWstudio.

Alexander McQueen would have been 44 today. On the occasion of his birthday, here’s a look back at the free pattern McQueen shared with SHOWstudio: the Scanners kimono jacket.

The original kimono jacket was made of black silk, and was shown on the runway with a matching pencil skirt and long gloves:

Model: Caitriona Balfe. Image via style.com.

The kimono jacket is drawn from Scanners, Alexander McQueen’s Fall/Winter 2003 collection. (The invitation to the show was printed with brain scans—CAT scans of the designer’s brain.) This was the year McQueen received his CBE from Queen Elizabeth II, as well as the CFDA’s International Award and his fourth British Fashion Designer of the Year. The models walked across a snowy tundra and along a raised wind tunnel; the design references represented a journey eastward through Siberia, Tibet, and Japan, mixed with geometric prints and McQueen’s signature tailoring. (See Suzy Menkes, “The Collections / Paris: A stellar McQueen; elegance at Viktor & Rolf.”)

Here are the collection images from L’Officiel 1000 modèles (click to enlarge):

Watch the runway video (kimono jacket at about 6:10):

Kimono-inspired designs are a thread running through McQueen’s work. Here are a few more kimono looks by Alexander McQueen, from Eclect Dissect—Givenchy couture, Fall 1997 (as on the McQueen / Nick Knight album cover for Björk’s Homogenic); La Dame Bleue, in memory of Isabella Blow; and the posthumous Fall 2010 collection:

Left to right, kimono-inspired looks from Eclect Dissect, Givenchy Haute Couture Fall 1997; La Dame Bleue, Alexander McQueen Spring 2008, and Alexander McQueen Fall 2010. Images via L’Officiel 1000 modèles and style.com.

Download the kimono jacket pattern

Size: US size 6 / UK size 8 approx. (bust 32″ – waist 24″) *

Fabric requirements: approx. 1.75 metres (about 2 yards) of 60″ fabric / over 3 metres (about 3.25 yards) of 39″ fabric *

See the SHOWstudio submissions gallery here. Toronto’s Mel of inside out inside has made an adapted version in Lida Baday fabric. Blithe of blithe stitches has a post on her metallic Hablon version and also a detailed tutorial.

* Sizes and yardages are approximate and are drawn from Mel and Blithe’s notes on their versions of the kimono jacket.