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.

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.