We do not own the rights to any of these images and they have been used in good faith. Every effort has been made to ensure that all images are used with proper credits. If you are the rightful owner of any image used on our site and wish to have it removed, please contact us at ayerhsmagazine@gmail.com and we will promptly remove it. We are a non-commercial, passion-driven, independent fashion blog and do not intend to infringe any copyright. Thank you for your understanding.
It was not a fashion show. It was performance art. No. 13, simply McQueen’s thirteenth collection, has the single most famous finale in runway history.
The theme was the Arts and Crafts movement, the hand set against the machine. The clothes were lighter and more sensual than anything he had done before: a tiered raffia dress with a leather bodice, lace, moulded leather, balsa wood fanned out into a skirt. The Paralympic athlete Aimee Mullins opened the show on a pair of prosthetic legs carved from wood like antique furniture, worn with a brown leather corset and a cream lace skirt. McQueen wanted her to be seen simply as one of the models, and most of the audience did not realise.
For the ending, Shalom Harlow stood on a turning disc in a white strapless dress belted across the bust. Two robots from a car factory came to life on either side of her. They circled, then sprayed her with black and yellow paint while she turned, arms raised, like a dancer under attack. When it stopped she stumbled towards the audience.
McQueen said it was the only one of his shows that made him cry. Twenty-five years on, it has lost nothing. If you watch one fashion show in your life, make it this one.
Pictures courtesy of Vogue Runway
We do not own the rights to any of these images and they have been used in good faith. Every effort has been made to ensure that all images are used with proper credits. If you are the rightful owner of any image used on our site and wish to have it removed, please contact us at ayerhsmagazine@gmail.com and we will promptly remove it. We are a non-commercial, passion-driven, independent fashion blog and do not intend to infringe any copyright. Thank you for your understanding.
Leave a Reply