Alexander McQueen had been tn requin labeled enfant terrible and the hooligan of English fashion because of his bad boy image in the fashion world. His collections and fashion shows were proof of this image as they often attracted controversies. One of his earliest shows that featured the “bumster” pants had people in a state of shock after his models paraded the low rise pants that partially exposed their buttocks. The term “bum cleavage” was actually coined to refer to the exposed area of the buttock. It was in 1992 that the “bumsters” came out which at that time were only worn by a small group of builders in London. This McQueen creation was actually responsible for starting a trend in low rise jeans which is now everywhere.
From the very start it had always been a habit of McQueen to shock his audience by coming up with fashion shows that were at times repulsive and disturbing and other times enchanting and bizarre. His 1995 fall collection show which had become known as the “highland rape” showed models wearing torn clothes with pieces of them hanging down, looking perplexed and their hair in disarray as if abused and assaulted. The show was meant to depict the havoc that England brought to Scotland. In another show in 2000, his models were portrayed as mental patients imprisoned in a glass covered room which appeared as a mental ward to the audience viewing it. This scene had probably been taken by McQueen from one of his favorite Alfred Hitchcock suspense films.
In all his shows, McQueen made a display of extravagance and larger than life productions. His strong silhouettes provided dramatic and fantastical effects on the show. In 2003 for his spring collection, he created a shipwreck scene. Then in 2005, he made a human chess game out of his models while in his 2006 fall collection called “Widows of Culloden” he dressed up Kate Moss in waves of fabric and captured her image in a hologram shown at the center of the runway. In 2009, he created a heap of scraps out of materials he used as props in his previous fashion shows and turned it into the show’s centerpiece. His models were dressed in black and orange wearing hats that were actually umbrellas and their faces were made up to look like harlequins.
The British designer also made great use of modern technology, which in not a small way also helped revolutionize the world of fashion. He was the first designer to stream his show live on the internet. His Spring 2010 show at Paris Fashion Week called “Plato’s Atlantis” inspired by Darwin’s Origin of Species was shown to an audience of 6 million via a hologram using state of the art equipment. This show was surreal as models were shown shedding off their old appearance and becoming underwater aliens or amphibian like creatures. It was also in this show that McQueen introduced the 10 inch high Armadillo shoes shaped like a lobster claw. While these may not be shoes that you want to wear to work, like most of Alexander McQueen s creations, it is a fashion item you are unlikely to forget.
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