The Girl Who Lived in the Tree
The collection was presented through the narrative of a fairy tale about a feral girl who lived in a tree before falling in love with a prince and descending to become a princess.
[3][1][2] He began as an apprentice on Savile Row, earning a reputation as an expert tailor, before briefly working at theatrical costume supplier Berman's & Nathan's in 1989.
[4][5] In 1990, McQueen enrolled in the master's-level course in fashion design at Central Saint Martins (CSM), a London art school, where he was mentored by course founder Bobby Hillson.
McQueen's graduation collection, Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims, was bought in its entirety by magazine editor Isabella Blow, who became another mentor and his muse.
The collection was presented through the narrative of a fairy tale about a feral girl who lived in a tree before falling in love with a prince and descending to become a princess.
[11][20] According to McQueen, this story was inspired by an ancient elm tree in the garden of his country home in Farleigh, England, and the girl represented Queen Elizabeth II as a young woman.
[22] Author Judith Watt felt that the fairy tale story reflected McQueen's romantic innocence and "stemmed back to childhood days".
[16] Although it was one of his most nationalist collections, journalist Susannah Frankel felt it contained elements of "irony and pastiche", and McQueen joked that he had picked the royal theme for selfish reasons: "I thought, I'll do this thing on the Queen, and I'll get the knighthood.
[21] He also drew heavily on the clothing he had seen in India with Leane, incorporating lush embroidery, jewelled headdresses, jutti (slippers resembling ballet flats), and the printed silk fabric used for saris.
[11] The skirts of the later dresses were exaggerated with crinolines, referencing the haute couture gowns Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies each designed for Elizabeth II in her youth.
[37] He asked Irish milliner Philip Treacy to create a peacock headpiece for the collection; as usual his creative brief was simple and gave wide latitude for interpretation.
[22] There were several tailored ensembles featuring frock coats and trousers, which author Judith Watt found reminiscent of dandies from the British Regency era.
[22][47] Models were styled with antique gem-encrusted necklaces, headpieces, and earrings lent by the New York branch of The Gem Palace of Jaipur, India, a long-standing high-end jewellery atelier.
[37] Raquel Zimmermann wore Look 28, a cropped jacket and close-fitting bodysuit; she explained to interviewers that her masculine outfit represented the prince.
[31] Curator Andrew Bolton suggested this was a reference to the collage t-shirts which Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren produced for punk band the Sex Pistols in the 1980s; these featured similar imagery of British national symbols.
[47][55] The bag was decorated with gilt, copper alloy, and Swarovski crystals, and may have been inspired by the jewelled Fabergé eggs made for the Russian imperial family in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
[51] Sarah Mower for Vogue felt McQueen had overcome his "confining, uptight carapace" to produce work that had a "new sense of lightness and femininity".
[21] A staff writer at Women's Wear Daily concurred, writing that McQueen had "expressed in fashion a newfound sense of joy" with the collection.
[61] In her Los Angeles Times review, Booth Moore cited "an amazing hourglass shaped jacket with slightly padded hips in black leather with the look of brocade" as an example of McQueen's tailoring ability.
[53][58][68] Armstrong called it "Jane Austen meets Raj" and favourably contrasted the historicist style with the modernist clothing other designers had produced that season.
[71] Horyn found herself impressed by McQueen's ability to communicate British history as "heroic, violent, [and] grand" without resorting to strictly historical clothing.
[24] Thomas wrote that it was a "breathtakingly beautiful collection" and compared it to the best work of the major post-World War II designers Cristóbal Balenciaga, Christian Dior, and Jacques Fath.
[74][75] The theatrical flair of McQueen's designs in The Girl Who Lived in the Tree may have been influenced by his time at costume supplier Berman's & Nathan's.
[76] Costume curator Keith Lodwick argued that his work on productions including the long-running musical Les Misérables was reflected in his tailored coats and jackets.
[77] In an essay about McQueen's incorporation of Gothic elements into his work, literature professor Catherine Spooner observed that bodily transformation was a theme he often returned to, especially in his fairy tale narratives such as The Girl Who Lived in the Tree.
[78] Writer Cassandra Atherton described using several McQueen collections, including The Girl Who Lived in the Tree, in a university-level creative writing course to teach a connection between poetry and fashion, particularly how one can inspire the other.
[31] She was also photographed wearing an ivory silk tulle empire waist gown of her own collection for Harper's Bazaar UK, a variant of one which had appeared on the runway in black as Look 7.
[85][86] Belinda White of The Telegraph called the Harry Potter dress "a blatant rip-off" and wrote that Temime had altered "the crest on the bird's heads to make them more 'phoenixy'", but had left the rest of the design with "rather obvious peacock feathers".
[52] McQueen's friend Daphne Guinness auctioned part of her fashion archive in 2012, including the ivory tulle dress she had worn for Harper's Bazaar UK.
[54] Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse, an exhibition first staged at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2022, featured Look 7 from the runway show as well as several items from the retail collection: a black minidress with a similar tree pattern to Look 22, a cream minidress with embroidery of birds and branches, and a black blouse.
