SPRING/SUMMER 2010
Season Coverage
Alexander McQueen’s Spring Summer 2010 collection marked the end of an era. On October 6th, 2009, in an indoor arena in Paris, the future of fashion changed. The venue was the setting for Lee Alexander McQueen’s last show, Plato’s Atlantis, drawing influence from the mythology of a time when humanity, having wreaked havoc on earth, returned to the ocean. McQueen was forecasting an environmental meltdown. The audience, immersed in darkness, watched as snakes slithered over a projected figure, out of the shadows, two imposing mechanical cameras sprung to life. As he had with his Voss show of SS01, McQueen turned the focus to his audience, surveilling them with the cameras to make them uncomfortable. The first model emerged McQueen’s latest shoe silhouette, the armadillo, her dress, a digital print that was otherworldly, her head covered in a series of ridge-like braids. She was followed by the kind of creatures never before seen on a catwalk; their hair twisted back into towering sculptures. They shimmered in iridescent garments, fabrics designed to imitate the kaleidoscope patterns of moths and butterflies, creating a biological hybridization of women with an animal. This would be the first fashion show to be live-streamed; McQueen believed that everybody who wanted access to the show should be able to have it, removing the elite status. In partnering with Nick Knight and Lady Gaga, Alexander McQueen’s SS10 show crashed through a whole new frontier, changing how fashion shows would be presented to the public. McQueen embraced the future of technology, though many feared it.
Written by Leonardo Hurtado
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