A look back at Alexander McQueen’s Fall/Winter 1999 Fashion Show: The Overlook.
If you didn’t already know, Alexander McQueen was an English designer who founded his label in 1992 and was the head designer at Givenchy from 1996-2001. His runway debut occurred in 1993 with the Spring/Summer Nihilism collection, with some other notable shows. These included the Banshee collection, the Untitled collection, and, as mentioned, the Overlook collection. The Overlook collection was named after the Overlook Hotel, a fictional building in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
The whole show took inspiration from the film, including the invitation card that read “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. This was a phrase that would be typed over and over by Jack Torrance, one of the main characters in the film. The show took place at the Gatliff Road Warehouse, with a large plexiglass cube in the center. It was then filled with fake snow and silver trees, and coupled with a pastel yet chilling atmosphere. This display was reminiscent of the winter and snowstorm the film took place during. Similarly, the show borrowed the soundtrack of the film, overlaying it with the sounds of howling wind and the bark of wolves.
However, this show itself did not last long, clocking in at just 30 minutes, and beginning with a short video package. In this video, closeups of the models are displayed, focusing on the minor details in their makeup, accessories, and shoes. The show was divided into several parts, each having a specific theme that would convey the overall message of the show, with the models coming out in different shades as the show progressed. However, the white lines drawn above these models' eyes, covering the upper region of their nose and their eyelashes remained constant throughout the show. This makeup provided a chilled, almost frozen image while also making a subtle reference to the Native American burial site that the Overlook Hotel was built upon.
At the beginning of the show, models wore a darker and more dull palette, with black being prominent. As the show progressed, the blacks would be interrupted by a leather top and skirt featuring flowers, providing a peek as to what to expect later in the show. Eventually, the blacks would begin to fade in favor of lighter hues, starting with some faded pinks and purples before more earthly tones such as green and brown, emphasizing the continued message of McQueen’s love and romanticizing of nature. The clothes at this point are also more tailored and defined. There’s a “pointiness”, or more structure to them. The show continues including more grays alongside the pinks, greens, with some blacks, before switching to pure white garments with the clothes seeming less tailored and loose, with more fluff to them.
Skaters would appear in all white dresses, performing a routine that would reveal the ice floor beneath them. They are covered in some black lighting that gives them skaters a blue appearance with Al Bowlly’s “Midnight, The Stars and You” playing in the back. After this interlude, snow begins to fall with the sound of wolves howling playing, setting the scene for the last section of the show. Models came out in white and silver with designs on the dresses, shirts, and coats that gave off the impression that they just got out of a snowstorm. Models came out in tops covered in crystals, long white wool coats, and silver skirts covered in metallic snowflakes. The show concluded with a model coming out in all white with snow falling all around her coated in the blue hue of the lighting.
This was a breathtaking but at times rather ominous and melancholic show. From the invitation to the stage models walk on, there is a dark theme that hangs around the beginning of the show, similar to the film it's based on. The audience isn’t immediately aware of what is meant to happen, but this still creates a feeling of anxiety and uneasiness. Just like the film, though, there’s a gradual build that leads to a stunning conclusion. The soundtrack music from The Shining with the howl of wolves and raging winds playing with it create an eerie atmosphere with this theme continued with the black garments the models wear as they walk around the inside of the cube. The mask-like makeup and the slight silver-grayish color of the models’ hair create a ghostly and almost unnatural appearance that mimics the strangeness of the Overlook Hotel and its paranormal activity. There’s a gracious transition as models begin to come out in white and perform a lovely ice skating routine in this dark lighting that creates another aura that is quite elegant but still unsettling as the audience is not yet aware of what the conclusion of the show holds.
The conclusion is beautiful as it begins to snow with the first model coming out in a top completely covered in crystals of various sizes, followed by models in an all-white wool coat and skirt then a model in a laser-cut silver turtleneck with metallic snowflakes stamped all over it. The last model comes out in an all-white dress with a snowstorm breaking out around her to finish the show. It is a show that is not necessarily meant to invoke fear but creates anxiety and builds stress in the viewer like the film it was based on. This is Alexander McQueen focusing on the key aspect of The Shining, Kubrick’s romantic view of nature and reimagining it. He makes winter a feminine being and explores that concept in its entirety from the cold and unknown, represented in the black and grey color palettes and its elegance and pureness in the pinks, purples, and whites of the garments.
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