ANGELS & DEMONS

There is dispute as to whether it is this collection (video link here) or ‘Plato’s Atlantis’ that should be classed as McQueen’s last – although S/S 2010 was the last that he completed, this posthumous collection was around 80% complete at the time of the designer’s death. I have chosen to take a further look at it both for reasons of posterity and also because the pieces revealed a more elegant side to the designer’s palette, taking classic works of art and superimposing them onto a series of breathtakingly beautiful garments. It’s perhaps ironic that McQueen became truly fascinated with religion and its concepts of the afterlife just months before his suicide, and although the posthumous collection has no official title it is known as ‘Angels and Demons’ – a title which fits the collection perfectly.

PLATO'S ATLANTIS

After symbolically collating the last 15 years of his work with his ‘Horn of Plenty’ collection, ‘Plato’s Atlantis’ (which can be seen in full here) saw Alexander McQueen draw a line under his past and move firmly towards the future. Utilising technology to its full potential, the designer announced a collaboration with renowned fashion photographer Nick Knight which would see the entire show streamed live on the photographer’s influential website ‘ShowStudio’ – a move which would take the notoriously exclusive world of the fashion show and smash it apart, broadcasting this usually private event to an audience of millions. It was only when international superstar Lady Gaga tweeted that the show would also debut her new single that excitement reached fever pitch, leading to the servers crashing immediately from overwhelming demand and representing a new peak in the designer’s career.

THE HORN OF PLENTY

Continuing his exploration of the battle between man and nature, McQueen’s ‘Horn of Plenty’ presentation (which can be seen in full here) was a return to a more brutal aesthetic for the designer. Taking place in a vast industrial wasteland, the show’s towering centrepiece was a scrapheap from which parts had been taken and made into headwear for the harlequin-faced models. The concept behind the set was that of recycling and renewal, a concept illustrated by the fact that props from his previous sets had been taken and spray-painted black in order to populate the scrapheap that dominated the stage. The designer spoke about how he wanted this show to be a retrospective of sorts, one that would mark his 15^th anniversary in the fashion industry and enable him to manufacture the image of his legacy – a story which is particularly poignant considering that this would end up being his penultimate complete collection.

NATURAL DIS-TINCTION UN-NATURAL SELECTION

In order to find inspiration for his S/S 2009 collection ‘Natural Dis-Tinction Un-Natural Selection’ (which can be seen in full here), the program notes stated that McQueen had been looking into the works of Darwin and his theory of evolution. This research was evident in the abundance of animal print in the collection as well as the warehouse location of the show which was lined with taxidermy animals ranging from polar bears to tigers. The show appeared to be divided into two halves – one of which depicted a life untouched by man and another which depicted man’s interference with nature, creating an overall commentary on man’s influence on evolution. The theme was not unusual for McQueen, and it is one that he would go on to visually discuss in more detail with his following two collections.

THE GIRL WHO LIVED IN THE TREE

For McQueen’s A/W 2008 presentation ‘The Girl Who Lived in the Tree’ (which can be seen in full here), the designer decided to use his imagination to create an unusual story behind the decadent collection. Speaking of the show, he told of how he would look at the 600-year-old elm tree which stood in his garden and dream that there was a girl dwelling inside it. The story behind this runway presentation would be of that same girl fleeing the darkness of her tree in order to meet her Prince, get married and become a Queen. Set to a soundtrack which combined Indian chants with a classical rendition of ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’, the show was a wonderful example of the designer’s childlike fascination with all things magical and resulted in a series of crinolined princess wandering like nomads around the tulle-wrapped tree which stood centre-stage.

LA DAME BLEUE

Despite collaborating with MAC and launching various diffusion lines, McQueen’s A/W 2007 collection didn’t sell as well as was expected. This created a sense of pressure and expectation around his S/S 2008 presentation, entitled ‘La Dame Bleue’ (which can be seen in full here). The show itself was a collaboration with world-renowned milliner Philip Treacy as the two banded together to pay tribute to the fashion legend that discovered them both, Isabella Blow. Their history began when she attended his graduate show and decided to buy the entire collection - from that moment onwards Blow and McQueen became close friends. She was always the first to champion his designs and he in turn saw her as his muse, leading the designer to claim that he felt “a huge hole in his life” when Blow finally succumbed to a lengthy battle with depression and committed suicide in 2007.

IN MEMORY OF ELIZABETH HOWE

After one of his most romantic collections to date, things quickly turned gothic with McQueen’s following collection ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Howe’ (which can be seen in full here). Once again the designer reached into his own past to pull inspiration for the show, basing it around a distant relative that was executed in the Salem witch trials. The set, with its red crystal pentagram and huge video screens depicting a naked woman writhing around in limbo, set the scene for a sartorial exploration of the history of witchcraft.

SARABANDE

Taking both its name and inspiration from a court dance popular in the Baroque era, McQueen’s ‘Sarabande’ (which can be seen in full here) is a fine example of the designer at his devastatingly romantic best. As usual there were undercurrents of melancholy, but the main focus of this show was simply an orchestra and an array of clothing so detailed that its makings owe more to the process of haute couture than prèt-à-porter.

WIDOWS OF CULLODEN

After two overwhelmingly pedestrian runway presentations, McQueen returned to form in spectacular fashion with one of his most critically-acclaimed shows ever. Returning once again to his Scottish roots, ‘The Widows of Culloden’ (which can be seen in full here) tackled similar subjects to his provocative ‘Highland Rape’ collection, albeit with a more romantic eye. Whilst the 1993 McQueen tackled the subject with ferocity and courted controversy, the 2006 McQueen took a softer, more poetic approach. Renowned for his romanticism, this collection is possibly one of the most lyrical of his career, designed to tell the story of the countless widows that resulted from the 1746 Battle of Culloden.

THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Take Marilyn Monroe, add a little Elvis and finish with a liberal sprinkling of Bardot and you have, essentially, McQueen’s A/W 2005 collection ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ (which can be seen in full here). Named after the Hitchcock film, the collection drew upon every ’60s cliché (think glamour girls, the rockers, rockabillies) and teamed it with an equally cliché soundtrack (lots of Elvis.) McQueen is said to have left the show without offering any comment on the collection, which further solidifies the fact that this collection left many with nothing in particular to say.

IT'S ONLY A GAME

For his S/S 2005 collection ‘It’s Only A Game’ (which can be seen in full here), McQueen offered up a collection which is better described as a personal greatest hits than as a stand-alone collection. Although he had always been self-referential (it is always said that the only way to truly become iconic is to repeat imagery), this collection saw him re-interpret a series of his staples by adding a new, feminine touch. It is an example of McQueen’s new, lighter aesthetic which appeared to come after the business was acquired by the Gucci group and, tellingly, after his time working at Givenchy.

PANTHEON AS LECUM

Following one of his most theatrical presentations to date, McQueen introduced ‘Pantheon As Lecum’ (which can be seen in full here) by announcing that he had decided to forgo the theatrics for this collection and focus purely on design. It is true that there’s no huge concept behind his A/W 2004 show (which is rare), but the aesthetics are as gorgeous as ever and the show also, ironically, produced one of the most recognisable runway images of McQueen’s career. The staging was still as spectacular as ever, with the runway becoming an enormous glowing landing pad complete with spaceship. Gigantic video screens projected footage taken from space interspersed with videos of meteors and accompanied by a techno soundtrack – it was instantly clear that McQueen had gone galactic.

DELIVERANCE

McQueen once again demonstrated his abilities as a showman in the S/S 2004 presentation ‘Deliverance’ (which can be seen here), eschewing a traditional fashion show and choosing to show his clothing on supermodels and professional dancers. The show was inspired by the 1969 film ‘They Shoot Horses Don’t They’, a film depicting a gruelling ballroom dance marathon set against the backdrop of America in the midst of the Great Depression. Both the film and ‘Deliverance’ act as a commentary on high society – described as a battle between the beautiful and the damned, it shows dedication to the façade of beauty in times of financial ruin.

SCANNERS

Inspired by nomads, the Antarctic and the elements, McQueen announced his Autumn/Winter 2003 collection (which can be seen in full here)  by sending out invitations adorned with X-ray scans of his own brain. The collection appeared to be a commentary on both isolation and the designer’s own nomadic lifestyle, beautifully represented in a series of garments that took their inspiration from all over the world.

IRERE

For his S/S 2003 presentation Irere (which can be seen in full here) McQueen once again looked to the ocean for inspiration, creating collection inspired by pirates, mermaids and the spectacular colour palette of the underworld.  The storyline behind the collection told of a shipwreck at sea which led to a landfall in the Amazon, therefore the show was populated with conquistadors as well as Amazonian Indians – underwater imagery merged with a tribal aesthetic in order to marry land with sea, adding a touch of lightness to McQueen’s notoriously aggressive designs. The show was also accompanied by a stunning fashion film projected behind the models on an enormous video screen – opening with a woman tumbling into the ocean and ending with an army of models storming land in glorious technicolour, the film provided a visual narrative to the beauty of the clothing.

SUPERCALIFRADGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS

This collection saw McQueen revert swiftly back to a darker, more gothic aesthetic by reintroducing leather, S&M and even the ‘bumster’ into his design repertoire. Staged in the building where Marie Antoinette is thought to have taken her last steps, McQueen’s ‘Supercalifradgilisticexpialidocious’ collection (which can be seen in full here) turned its set into a medieval fairytale castle, complete with white wolves prowling the upper echelons of the dilapidated stone building.

DANCE OF THE TWISTED BULL

‘Dance of the Twisted Bull’ was incredibly different in some ways to McQueen’s previous work, and to understand why we need to look at the events surrounding the time of its creation. Seemingly impressed by his S/S 2001 masterpiece ‘VOSS’, the legendary Gucci group decided to buy a share of McQueen as a company which presented enormous opportunities regarding both funding and expansion – an opportunity which McQueen graciously accepted. This acquisition took place in December 2000 when the designer would have been midway through the creation of his A/W 2001 collection – essentially making this, his S/S 2002 collection (which can be seen in full here) the first that he made under the provisions of the Gucci group.

WHAT A MERRY GO ROUND

Featuring a heavy-metal soundtrack interspersed with children’s music and horrific goth clowns dancing around a traditional carousel, McQueen’s Autumn/Winter 2001 collection (which can be seen in full here) highlighted all of his best-known attributes. Playing on his skills as a showman, the set was dressed up like a gothic fairytale complete with skeletons being dragged across the floor and libidinous models writhing up against the poles of the carousels – like some perverse reinterpretation of the Brothers Grimm, McQueen managed to create a spectacle that straddled the lines of acceptability. 

VOSS

Undoubtedly one of the contenders for the greatest McQueen show of all time, the only way to possibly see this show and take in its brilliance is by watching it in its entirety, which you can do here.. With this collection, pictures themselves aren't enough - this was a runway 'presentation' of the greatest kind, and everything from the behaviour of the models to the unveiling of Michelle Olley and the two-hour delay in the show's start were indications of how meticulously McQueen had planned every aspect of the presentation. Designed as a sort of social commentary, the first genius move by McQueen was to design a giant glass cube for the show - made from double-sided mirrors, the models were unable to see the audience and when the lights inside the cube weren't illuminated the audience could only see themselves in a gigantic mirror. McQueen deliberately started the show two hours behind schedule, leaving the audience having to look at themselves for the entire time - he has since commented with glee on how uncomfortable the audience were having to watch themselves as McQueen stayed backstage and watched their reactions on a CCTV camera.

ESHU

McQueen often remarked that he found beauty in areas that society generally perceives as 'ugly' or 'savage' - in general, high-fashion has a fascination with beauty but sometimes designers delve deeper and explore different concepts and draw inspiration from obscure places, and it is at this point that a collection truly becomes unique. As usual, McQueen presented a highly-researched collection that took the aesthetic of the ancient Yoruba tribe and brought it up to date with a decidedly chic twist - the collection can be seen in full here.