A/W 2000 ESHU
Wearing a collection inspired by the Yoruba people of West Africa, the models walked along a catwalk of broken stones in an industrial warehouse in Paris. McQueen fused traditional tribal motifs, like extended hair headdresses and fur trims, with modern western elements like fringing, denim and plaid. Tribal neck rings worked as collars, and have featured again this Autumn Winter.
S/S 2001 VOSS
Nicknamed the Asylum Collection, this elaborate show cost £70,000 and took seven days to construct. Models watched themselves in a two-way mirror, walking around an inner cube which opened to reveal a naked body covered in butterflies and moths; recreating a photograph by Joel-Peter Witkin. The finale outfit, worn by model Karen Elson, was constructed from a vintage silk kimono and segments of a two hundred year old Japanese screen.
S/S 2002 THE DANCE OF THE TWISTED BULL
This Spanish themed show saw models impaled by red flags, with traditional flamenco dresses cut in red leather. McQueen reinterpreted Spanish frills in densely folded fluted skirts. Matador suits featured padded hip embellishment, with the hats reworked in moulded plastic.
along a huge industrial wind tunnel over a landscape of earth and snow. “I wanted it to be like a nomadic journey across the tundra” [Alexander McQueen]. As this implies, there were strong Russian influences in the cut and construction of the clothes. Tunic dresses were layered like tiles, while extravagant furs suggested arctic expeditions. Japanese flag colours also came through, with traditional kimono shapes.
A/W 2002 SUPERCALIFRAGILISTIC Wolves prowled a catwalk lit by Tim Burton, in the spot where Marie Antoinette is thought to have died. The collection personified Germanic Puritanism. Monotone clothes were bound with leather straps and heads held tightly in leather caps. Old references recurred, and new inspiration was drawn from the German cabaret scene of the 1940s.
S/S 2003 IRERE
A huge screen projected the image of a drowning girl, with models like beached pirates in dresses shredded like seaweed. As the girl was saved, the screen darkened and so did the clothes, from brown and beige to black leather and lace, set against the green and black backdrop of night-vision. One model on screen disappeared into the woods, and returned lit by a heat sensor, with the third section of the collection exploding into rainbow bright tropical colours in voluminous shapes with birds of paradise headdresses.
S/S 2004 DELIVERANCE
With the help of Michael Clark’s choreography, McQueen re-enacted the dance marathon of Sydney Pollack’s film They Shoot Horses Don’t They. The models danced, ran, and collapsed their way around the stage, at first in old school glamour with stunning ostrich feather ball gowns. Then, as the marathon progressed, in fitted sportswear cut for movement in pinks and greys, and finally in western denim and plaid.
A/W 2001 WHAT A MERRY-GOROUND
McQueen subverted the circus, dressing nightmarish, sexualised characters pole dancing around a carousel. Models became terrible clowns in feather trimmed sequinned flapper dresses, asymmetrical tailoring, harlequin legs and black leathers embellished with lace trains; clawed at by golden skeletons.
A/W 2003 SCANNERS
Kimono style capes billowed out dramatically as models walked VIOLET 43