It consists of model Shalom Harlow wearing a white dress, standing on a rotating platform on the show's catwalk and being spray-painted by robots.
[10] Harlow walked alone onto the runway, wearing a strapless white tulle dress with one belt above the bust and another in the back.
"[9] Suzy Menkes reviewed the show for the International Herald Tribune, calling it "the triumph of London's fashion week" and describing the finale as "extraordinary.
"[5] Much critical, academic, and popular analysis has been devoted to the piece, with themes including technology, sexuality, the role of the artist, patriarchy, and McQueen's own life.
"[9]For the Metropolitan Museum of Art's career retrospective exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Harlow commented to curator Andrew Bolton:"It almost became this like aggressive sexual experience in some way.
McCaffrey writes that the piece defies the common understanding of mechanization, as the robots seem to sense, feel, and think, creating an uncanny valley effect.
He also connects McQueen's work to Yves Klein's Anthropométries in its emphasis on gender and patriarchy, thus anchoring the machine "to the human tendency to dominate and oppress.
"[10] Kate Bethune of the Victoria and Albert Museum connected the work to the show's inspiration, the Arts and Crafts movement, suggesting that the finale may have been "intended as a counterpoint to William Morris's anti-industrial ethic, provoking comment on the interaction between man and machine at the turn of the twenty-first century.
"[3] Rachel Tashjian, the fashion news director at Harper's Bazaar, interpreted the moment as autobiographical, saying that it "always read to [her] as a statement about McQueen's tortured creativity, the way that creation is violence inflicted upon the materials (and people) tasked with carrying out the vision.
[13][12] Vogue included the piece on a list of McQueen's most memorable runway moments, noting that it "cemented [his] reputation as the ultimate showman.
[18][19] The 2012 premiere of season four of RuPaul's Drag Race paid homage to the piece, as contestants stood on a rotating platform while being hosed with neon paint.
[20][21] For the 2019 opening of the Times Square EDITION hotel, hotelier Ian Schrager commissioned an art installation in reference to McQueen, with notable people in fashion such as Alex Lundqvist in all-white outfits, spinning on a platform and sprayed with paint by robotic arms.