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.