Mythological and religious belief systems, along with wide-ranging cultural and historical references, inspired many of Alexander McQueen’s collections and highlight the impressive breadth of artistic source material that he drew upon.

The untitled collection, autumn–winter 2010–11, posthumously called Angels and Demons, references Christian iconography from the Byzantine Empire as well as the northern and Italian Renaissance. Through the collection, the existential dualities of heaven and hell, sin and redemption, and damnation and salvation are explored. Neptune, McQueen’s spring–summer 2006 collection, looks to ancient Greece and Rome to recast contemporary women as powerful and empowered warriors or goddesses, while Eye, spring–summer 2000, combines Western fashion with interpretations of dress and textiles traditionally associated with the Ottoman Empire (late thirteenth century to 1923).

By fusing religious symbols and silhouettes, historical secular dress and contemporary fashion, and costume and artistic traditions drawn from various cultures, McQueen developed a multifaceted vision.

Untitled (Angels and Demons),
autumn–winter 2010–11

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The collection’s posthumously attributed title derives from tweets McQueen posted just before his death (‘Hells Angels + Prolific Demons’) less than one month before the premiere of the collection in Paris on 10 March 2010. The exploration of heavenly and fallen angels has been interpreted as a reflection of McQueen’s mental health struggles. However, conflict, religion and finding meaning in ambiguity were themes that characterised his practice throughout his career.

With Angels and Demons, McQueen looked to the past ‘to find light and beauty’. Three-dimensional gilt embroideries and inventive Jacquard textiles borrow from Italian and northern Renaissance art, as well as Classical sculpture.

A celebration of craftsmanship, concept and beauty, the small collection was completed by McQueen’s womenswear studio – led by Sarah Burton, now the label’s creative director – and masterfully blends hightech elements with ancient history.

Eye,
spring–summer 2000

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McQueen’s Eye collection was inspired by Turkish music he first heard in a taxi, and by the greater Islamic community in London. The collection clashes body-conscious Western fashion with McQueen’s interpretations of Middle Eastern clothing, citing cultural and religious dress practices, as well as belly dancing costumes and contemporary soccer uniforms. These references can all be traced to lands once encompassed by the Ottoman Empire, as well as modern-day Turkey and the Persian Gulf.

Eye conflates a vast region of diverse peoples and histories into a single, sensational vision. In the collection are echoes of the legacy of Turquerie, an eighteenth century Western European fashion for imitating the beauty of Turkish culture in an idealised and reductive manner. Although the collection could be also interpreted as querying the value ascribed to clothing as a means of concealing or revealing women’s bodies, Eye offers no clear commentary on women’s agency.

Neptune,
spring–summer 2006

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Named after the Roman god of water, Neptune draws upon imagery from the Classical period. Borrowing from representations of soldiers, gladiators and wrestlers, marble sculpture and architecture, as well as the deity of the sea himself, the collection underscored McQueen’s desire to impart strength to the women wearing his creations.

Neptune (and his Greek counterpart, Poseidon) was both turbulent and seductive, like the sea. In the collection’s runway presentation, McQueen married these concepts with a soundtrack featuring self assured musicians, including Missy Elliott, Aretha Franklin and Suzi Quatro. Neoclassical motifs such as columns, hippocamps (Hellenistic seahorses) and phoenixes connect McQueen to a long history of artists similarly inspired by the iconography and aesthetics of ancient Greek and Roman mythology.

Rooted in McQueen’s personal history and romanticised historical references, his narrative-driven collections explore themes of tradition, discovery, exchange, power, persecution, violence and metamorphosis.

The Widows of Culloden, autumn–winter 2006–07, mines McQueen’s Scottish ancestry, condemning British colonialism and violence in eighteenth-century Scotland. In Memory of Elizabeth How, Salem, 1692, autumn–winter 2007–08, traces the designer’s familial background to colonial Massachusetts to pay tribute to distant ancestors executed in the Salem witch trials.

The Girl Who Lived in the Tree, autumn–winter 2008–09, envisions a fairytale that ultimately traces the rhythms of power in the rise and fall of the British Raj in India, while Scanners, autumn–winter 2003–04, portrays a journey across Siberia, through Tibet, to Japan, via designs that borrow from textile and dress traditions of these regions.

The Widows of Culloden,
autumn–winter 2006–07

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This collection acknowledges McQueen’s Scottish ancestry and condemns Britain’s violent colonial history, particularly the brutal 1746 Battle of Culloden, where British troops defeated the Jacobite army, later storming villages and burning buildings housing the wounded. Reprising themes at the heart of his controversial Highland Rape collection from eleven years prior, autumn–winter 1995–96, McQueen’s The Widows of Culloden collection memorialises Highlander widows left behind.

The historical and romantic silhouettes and refined construction that characterise the collection draws upon traditional MacQueen tartan and Scotland’s natural landscape. An expertly draped green jersey dress recalls the colour of the moors; heavy wool tweed evokes gamekeeping traditions. McQueen’s use of plaid references its application in support of the Jacobite cause prior to the Battle of Culloden, reclaiming tartan not as a trophy of British conquest but as a symbol of Scottish identity. Through an intimate examination of melancholy, The Widows of Culloden also finds the beauty therein.

The Girl Who Lived in the Tree,
autumn–winter 2008–09

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Inspired by an ancient elm on McQueen’s East Sussex property and his travels to India, The Girl Who Lived in the Tree envisions a fairytale about a princess who descends from the tree’s branches to the ground. The story of the girl’s explorations spans the lives of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II, and the British Raj, with silhouettes and ornamentation drawn from both nineteenth-century and mid-twentieth-century English fashion. Further details are inspired by the opulent textiles, jewellery and motifs of Indian court dress. These references to a queen whose colonial reach no longer included the Indian subcontinent were purposely optimistic, resulting in a collection that symbolises hope for a girl emerging from darkness into the light.

In Memory of Elizabeth How, Salem, 1692,
autumn–winter 2007–08

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One of McQueen’s distant relatives was executed in Salem in the deadliest witch hunt in colonial New England. Embracing witchcraft rather than shying away from it, the runway show for this collection also acknowledged the long history of paganism that the Salem Puritans decried. During the presentation, models walked along a black sandy stage, following the lines of a large red pentagram, a common symbol of Wiccan identity.

Two dresses encrusted with beads celebrate the wavy strands of hair typically shorn from women accused of practising witchcraft, to reveal any marks of Satan hidden underneath. Long symbolising women’s strength, unconfined hair connotes virility and freedom, as well as temptation and sin. The beading may also be interpreted as fire, referencing the European practice of burning witches at the stake. Associations of witchcraft, hair and fire are also reflected in Ernst Barlach’s woodblock print of Lilith, a figure recently recast as a symbol of feminine strength, a reconsideration that McQueen similarly posed with this collection.

Scanners,
autumn–winter 2003–04

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Scanners conveys a journey across the Siberian tundra, south through Tibet, and finally eastward to Japan. Punctuating McQueen’s narrative are designs that borrow from the textile traditions of these locations and mirror the vast region’s rich history of cultural exchange that occurred along Eurasian trade routes such as the Silk Road. Also influencing these designs was McQueen’s affinity for Japanese dress and his personal adoption of Buddhism.

McQueen’s appropriation of global dress styles can be understood as a commentary on politics or identity against a backdrop of rapid globalisation. A sumptuous fur coat evokes Siberian ‘soft gold’, with metallic trims reminiscent of gold-embellished Russian textiles. A brocade pattern of interlocking octagons and floral medallions (called kati rimo in Tibetan) illustrates movement into Tibet. And in Japan, where Scanners concludes, McQueen’s red, kimono inspired jacket with trompe l’oeil piecing recalls the patchworked mantles or kesa worn by Japanese Buddhist priests.

Essential to every McQueen work is the designer’s foundation in garment construction. Demonstrating McQueen’s mastery of tailoring and dressmaking, the works in this gallery and the following illustrate the ongoing influence of his formative years spent cutting men’s suits as an apprentice tailor on Savile Row. McQueen’s dressmaking also features complex garment patterns, informed by skilful cutting and tactile sensitivity in draping.

McQueen’s deep knowledge of technique also enabled him to deconstruct clothing, resulting in designs that combine, in the words of Isabella Blow, ‘sabotage and tradition’. He learnt methods of deconstruction while working for experimental designers Koji Tatsuno and Romeo Gigli, while as head designer at Givenchy, he further refined his couture skills. These experiences culminated in designs strongly informed by McQueen’s hands-on approach to garment creation.

McQueen’s attention to detail was not limited to construction; it is also apparent in his inventive use of fabrics, surface treatments and embrace of emerging technologies, such as laser-cutting and digital printing, which have had a lasting impact on the fashion industry.

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Costume history

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McQueen regularly turned to Western costume history for inspiration, refashioning men’s and women’s dress, textiles and embellishments from past eras ranging from the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to the Belle Époque and the Jazz Age.

His interest in, and adaptation of, historical silhouettes, textiles and trims greatly influenced the storylines of McQueen’s collections, which were often inspired by historical prints, fashion plates and paintings, as well as the contemporary film genres of sci-fi and horror through to fantasy and period drama.

Surface decoration

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Alexander McQueen’s use of inventive fabrics, surface treatments and photorealist imagery expresses his appreciation for both historical and emerging technology. The Natural Dis-tinction, Un-Natural Selection collection, spring–summer 2009, was pioneering in its use of digitally engineered and printed textile designs to reinforce McQueen’s artistic concepts. Other surface treatments, such as quilting, beading and fringing, were inspired by McQueen’s fashion predecessors, including Charles James, or muses, like his friend and patron Isabella Blow.

Dangerous bodies

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McQueen’s lexicon of design codes, techniques, materials and references was grounded in a desire to transcend fashion norms. McQueen wanted to imbue his garments with a distinct power, claiming: ‘I want people to be afraid of the women I dress’.

The distinctive silhouettes and anatomical cutting of McQueen’s designs delineated the female form while conferring a ferocious agency on the wearer. This notion of fearlessness influenced McQueen’s work technically and conceptually. On the runway, his models were defiant, and the clothes confronting. Audiences were unsettled by his transgressive vision of beauty, dominance and desire.

Key collaborators Sarah Harmarnee and Dai Rees also contributed to the realisation of McQueen’s vision during the late 1990s. Headpieces were sharp, hard, decorative and protective, and face veils were analogous with the themes of vulnerability, survival and empowerment through transformation. These themes were at the heart of his collections during this period, and indeed throughout much of McQueen’s career.

McQueen’s fascination with life cycles and the human condition – nature, evolution and death – resulted in collections that explore life’s inherent fragility and find hope in its regeneration.

The Dance of the Twisted Bull, spring–summer 2002, presents bullfighting as a metaphor for life and death. Sarabande, spring–summer 2007, which references Stanley Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon (1975), traditions of mourning dress and Dutch floral still life painting, finds beauty in the inevitability of decay. The Horn of Plenty, autumn–winter 2009–10, critiques mass consumerism – and its role in the global financial crisis – which McQueen countered by recycling famous silhouettes from his own work and designers before him. Deliverance, spring–summer 2004, presents an allegorical ‘dance to the death’ inspired by Sydney Pollack’s film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969). The designer’s final completed collection, Plato’s Atlantis, spring–summer 2010, imagines a world consumed by the ocean, where life originated and, McQueen suggested, where life might continue.

The Horn of Plenty ,
autumn–winter 2009–10

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Conceived during the Great Recession, which began in 2007, The Horn of Plenty critiqued financial and social structures – including the fashion industry and its reliance on overconsumption – that had imperilled the world’s economies. The collection’s title connotes bounty, and is also the name of the hotel where the final victim of Jack the Ripper (the inspiration behind McQueen’s first collection) was last seen. The runway presentation for the collection was subversive, whimsical and performative, elevating trash and repurposing jewellery, headpieces, stage props and songs from McQueen’s previous shows.

Sarabande,
spring–summer 2007

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Sarabande derived its name from Baroque composer George Frideric Handel’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor (fourth movement), which was the title sequence of Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 film Barry Lyndon. An ode to the fragility of beauty, the film inspired McQueen’s collection – as did European mourning practices, seventeenth-century Dutch floral still life paintings, and the work of Spanish artist Francisco de Goya. These varied sources of inspiration informed McQueen’s examination of the inevitability of death. In the final walk of the runway presentation, the colour palette transitioned from black to grey to mauve – the traditional order of mourning colours – circling the runway like a cycle of life.

The Dance of the Twisted Bull,
spring–summer 2002

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The bullfight – synonymous with Spanish culture, where it is called corrida – inspired McQueen’s 2002 springsummer collection. Interpreted by the designer as both masculine and feminine, the costume of the male matador (traje de luces or the ‘suit of lights’) informed the silhouettes, with accents drawn from the traditional dress of women flamenco dancers. Tailored angles and draped ruffles blend in a collection that explores the undercurrent of eroticism and death in bullfighting. Two ensembles from Sarabande, spring–summer 2007, also inspired by similar motifs and art, reimagine the matador’s high-waisted, close-fitting breeches (taleguilla) with blouses inspired by Spanish blackwork embroidery and lace.

Deliverance,
spring–summer 2004

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The Great Depression dance marathon portrayed in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? inspired McQueen’s Deliverance, which poses the danse macabre as a metaphor for working in fashion. A ‘raven cape’ embodies the film’s sense of foreboding: ravens, like other birds of prey, traditionally represent death. In Deliverance, even wristwatch-strap sandals, marking McQueen’s 1969 birth year, are a form of memento mori.

The 1930s-style silhouettes of Deliverance and dancehall staging closely approximated that of the f ilm. Athletic knitwear enabled models to recreate the film’s stampede across a racetrack finish line. The runway performance, choreographed by Michael Clark, closed with a dancer collapsed onstage.

Plato’s Atlantis,
spring–summer 2010

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McQueen’s interest in evolutionary theories inspired career-spanning explorations of humanity’s place in the natural world, or Darwinism as a metaphor for the fashion industry. The designer’s final completed collection, Plato’s Atlantis proposes a science-fiction scenario: global warming has reversed evolution, driving humanity to adapt for survival underwater.

The stages of this evolution are traced in silhouettes that radically alter the form of the body, and evoked by innovative, digitally manipulated and printed textiles that reproduce patterns and textures drawn from animals from the land, sky and sea.

Despite portraying humanity’s Atlantean return to the sea, the overall tone of the collection is not pessimistic. Rather, Plato’s Atlantis emphasises the interconnectedness of all existence. This notion of circularity, whether in nature or theology, features in much of McQueen’s work. For the designer, who saw water as a refuge, and Atlantis as ‘a metaphor for Neverland’, Plato’s Atlantis affirmed that from destruction, regrowth inevitably follows.

Today, Alexander McQueen is regarded as a visionary, as his designs continue to inform contemporary approaches to fashion, whether in construction, new technologies or runway shows. Interviewed in 2004, the designer said:

‘When I’m dead and gone, people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.’