Scanners (Alexander McQueen collection)
The collection is based on the idea of exiles travelling eastward through northern Eurasia: Siberia, Tibet, and finally Japan.
The designs borrow heavily from the traditional clothing and art of those areas, and reflect an overall aesthetic of luxury, with voluminous silhouettes and rich materials.
The runway show was staged on 8 March 2003 at the Grande halle de la Villette in Paris, with production by McQueen's usual creative team.
[1][2] During his nearly twenty-year career, he explored a broad range of ideas and themes, including historicism, romanticism, femininity, sexuality, and death.
[1][2][3] He began as an apprentice on Savile Row, earning a reputation as an expert tailor; later he learned dressmaking as head designer for French fashion house Givenchy.
[b][13][14] The materials, silhouettes, and aesthetics of the designs borrow heavily from the traditional clothing and art of those areas, reflecting the cultural exchanges that followed the Silk Road and the resulting spread of Buddhism.
[28][12] The collection opened with Russian-inspired pieces featuring embroidery, pom-poms, metallic trimming, and fur – known historically in Russia as "soft gold" for its value as a luxury good.
[13][30] After roughly twenty looks, the introduction of checkered fabric and a complex geometrical floral pattern called kati rimo indicated a transition to Tibetan-inspired clothing.
[13][31] The final phase of Scanners borrowed from the clothing and culture of Japan, incorporating kimono-like silhouettes and sunrise motifs that played on the country's nickname, Land of the Rising Sun.
[33] Philip Treacy created headwear for the collection, including Glengarry caps, headpieces based on the Japanese rising sun motif, and an engraved red and white glass mitre worn with Look 47.
[24][26] The mitre may have been a tribute to Isabella Blow, who was a mutual friend and muse of Treacy and McQueen; she wore a similar hat in a Vanity Fair portrait in 1997.
[c][28] The show opened with Adina Fohlin crossing the overhead walkway wearing a fur-trimmed vest and A-line skirt, followed by a series of about twenty Russian-inspired looks.
[38][13][39] The final phase of the show comprised fourteen looks inspired by Japanese culture, including several with red and white palettes and some fur coats.
[28] The lights went back down and Ai Tominaga appeared in the walkway, clad only in an enormous, ornate, white kimono over briefs and boots.
[d][12][28] A strong wind and fake snow roared through the tunnel, blowing the kimono back and exposing her naked chest as she struggled to cross.
[45] Textile curators Clarissa M. Esguerra and Michaela Hansen identified a clinging bandage dress from the retail collection, which had zippers for side seams, as a reworking of similar styles by Azzedine Alaïa, a designer McQueen admired.
[14] Anna Jackson argued that McQueen's incorporation of elements from Japanese clothing was more "transformative" than similar efforts by other designers, who treated these aesthetics as a novelty.
Fohlin recalled her appearances in Scanners positively, saying that McQueen's "shows were always something more than a regular runway; as a model you had more space to perform.
[50] The 2022 exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse featured several items from Scanners, primarily from the retail collection, as well as Look 24, a checked suit.
