GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.- The Grand Rapids Art Museum will present Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous, an exhibition exploring the thirteen-year friendship and intimate creative collaboration between the late British designer Lee Alexander McQueen and French photographer Ann Ray. Organized by Barrett Barrera Projects, Rendez-Vous will be on view at GRAM from October 5, 2024, through January 12, 2025.

The fashion and photography exhibition features over 50 spectacular pieces by McQueen spanning 1994 to 2010, alongside nearly 70 photographs by Ann Ray, who McQueen personally selected to photograph his design process and the behind-the-scenes experience of his runway shows.

Grand Rapids is currently the final planned stop in the multi-city U.S. tour of Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous, and GRAM is the only Midwest venue to host the exhibition to date.

“The Grand Rapids Art Museum is honored to bring to West Michigan the work of the world’s foremost contemporary designer, the late Lee Alexander McQueen, as well as that of artist Ann Ray,” commented GRAM Assistant Curator Terra Warren. “In Rendez-Vous, Ray’s evocative and touching photography of McQueen’s ambitious process, his increasingly adventurous and era-defining garments, and the models who adorned his creations brings the designer’s fabled career and life into a new, more human light than we’ve ever seen before.”

Over fifty McQueen garments in the exhibition were sourced from Barrett Barrera Projects, the largest private collection of McQueen’s work and the owner of Ann Ray’s full McQueen photographic archive. The exhibition also includes dress objects McQueen gifted to Ray over the course of their work together, giving visitors to the exhibition rare insight into their unique partnership.

Speaking of their close friendship, Ray said, “You know, it was simple. He was part of my life, we loved each other, I had rendez-vous.” McQueen and Ray’s work together began with a simple agreement in which money, business considerations and fashion had no place. “I like your images but I’m broke. Give me your photos, I’ll give you clothes,” Ray recalls McQueen expressing to her early in their relationship.

Together, the objects and photographs provide an opportunity to reexamine the life and legacy of McQueen—a beloved but widely misunderstood figure—and to disentangle the person from the persona, the man from the myth.

Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous is organized by Barrett Barrera Projects.