pure, dirty, raw

(Natalia Vodianova in Alexander McQueen Oyster dress, Age of Innocence, Harper’s Bazaar March 2003, by Peter Lindbergh)

“For his S/S 2003 presentation Irere, McQueen once again looked to the ocean for inspiration, creating collection inspired by mermaids, pirates and the spectacular colour palette of the underworld.  The storyline behind the collection told of a shipwreck at sea which led to a landfall in the Amazon– underwater imagery merged with a tribal aesthetic in order to marry land with sea, adding a touch of lightness to McQueen’s designs. The show was also accompanied by a stunning fashion film projected behind the models on an enormous video screen – opening with a woman tumbling into the ocean and ending with an army of models storming land in glorious technicolour, the film provided a visual narrative to the beauty of the clothing.

The collection truly demonstrated McQueen’s softer side at its finest, culminating in one of his most iconic garments, the Oyster dress. Crafted from countless layers of delicate silk, Burton recalled the tale of its fabrication in an interview which accompanied the dress in the ‘Savage Beauty’ exhibition. She recalled how “he wanted this idea – it was almost like she had drowned – and the top part of the dress was all fine boning and tulle, and the chiffon is all frayed and dishevelled on the top”. McQueen has often commented that the dress was one of the purest examples of the ‘lightness’ that he had learnt at Givenchy.