The Horn of Plenty
[31][32] He was concerned with the way the rapid turnover of the fashion cycle relied on consumerism and over-consumption to turn a profit, creating unnecessary waste and exhausting designers.
[32][49] McQueen, 39 at the time the collection was conceived, viewed The Horn of Plenty as the last he would make as a young man, and sought to create a retrospective of his career to that point.
[56] McQueen's concerns about wastefulness and consumerism were reflected in designs that appeared to be made of trash, such as coats that looked like bin bags or bubble wrap.
He made visual allusions to the New Look created by designer Christian Dior, the tweed suits that Coco Chanel was known for, and the little black dress popularised by Hubert de Givenchy.
[15] Presented in Spring/Summer 2000, Galliano's collection featured clothing made from rubbish like old newspapers and models styled to look homeless, resulting in significant controversy.
[54][47] Primary silhouettes included McQueen staples like tailored coats, slim waists, and large shoulders, as well as boxy jackets, a shape he rarely used; conversely, he avoided his usual corset-based designs.
The new version featured a houndstooth pattern that, through tessellation, transformed into magpies, referencing the mathematically inspired art of Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher just as the original collection had.
Three seasons prior, his collection La Dame Bleue had included high platform shoes inspired by the Japanese geta and the Venetian chopine of the 15th century.
[82] He brought these ideas into The Horn of Plenty, which featured platform boots in houndstooth and red geta-style heels with a thin strap like a Mary Jane shoe.
[83][84] In 2008, McQueen asked his friend Nick Waplington, a photographer, if he would be interested in collaborating on a photo book documenting the creation of The Horn of Plenty from beginning to end.
[32] McQueen was generally private to the point of deliberate obtuseness; both Frankel and Waplington considered the project an opportunity to glean an unusual amount of insight into his mind and creative process.
[89] During the editing process, the pair added photos of landfills and recycling plants, juxtaposed with those of the collection to reinforce McQueen's point about environmental destruction.
[90][57] Although the book was completed by late 2009, minor issues with the publisher delayed their signing a contract until after the Christmas holidays that year, and in February 2010, McQueen committed suicide.
[92] The runway was made of cracked black glass, which author Dana Thomas took as "a swipe at fashion's self-obsession", and curator Kate Bethune thought was an allusion to the shattered economy.
[89] The poses and gestures the models made while walking called back to the stylised body language in silent films and mid-century fashion photography.
He identifies its origins in the experimental monkey fur garments designed by Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1930s, as well as in a coat made of human hair from McQueen's Eshu (Spring/Summer 2000).
[107] Look 42 featured a reworked version of a chainmail yashmak by Leane originally made for Eye (Spring/Summer 2000), worn underneath a silk gown with a milk snake print in red, black, and white.
[49] On the other hand, The New York Times quoted an unnamed magazine editor dismissing it as "a collection inspired by Wall-E", a 2008 film that depicts Earth as a trash-strewn wasteland.
[49] Jonathan Akeroyd, chief executive officer of the Alexander McQueen label, told the magazine that the collection had performed well commercially, with showpiece designs accounting for some 35% of total sales.
[114] When Vogue magazine asked various designers about their favourite shows by others, in 2024, Marine Serre picked The Horn of Plenty, calling it a "powerful visual critique of consumerism".
[115] Seán McGirr, the creative director of the Alexander McQueen brand since 2024, cited The Horn of Plenty and Plato's Atlantis as having had a strong influence on him in his formative years in fashion.
[116] Fashion journalist Alex Fury felt the collection exemplified McQueen's tendency to craft shows that functioned as "pointed commentary" on the world.
[36][119][120] Theorist Mélissa Diaby Savané wrote that the use of raven symbolism was an example how McQueen created garments that he felt were empowering for the wearer, enabling them to "inspire fear in others".
[120] While many critics have defined this tendency as being in the Romantic tradition, Bucci instead identified the black feathered dress, and The Horn of Plenty in general, as Surrealist in nature, with its "juxtaposition of mutually unrelated objects".
Psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud and Karl Abraham popularised the notion that there is "a symbolic relationship between mouths and vaginas in human libidinal development", and in popular culture, this is sometimes taken to mean that red lipstick is "designed to mimic female genitalia".
He likened McQueen to an insect going through metamorphosis or a snake shedding its skin, reinventing himself and discarding each previous phase in his creative development in order to "evolve into [his] final form".
McQueen distorted traditional silhouettes and design flourishes to an extreme degree, so that "they seem in danger of imminent collapse", representing his view on the industry and the economy as a whole.
[132][133] In 2012, the Royal Mail released a set of stamps featuring iconic British fashion designs; the final look from The Horn of Plenty appeared on one.
[134] In 2017, McQueen's longtime collaborator Shaun Leane auctioned a number of pieces he had created for the house at Sotheby's in New York, including at least one from The Horn of Plenty.
[150][151][152] A 2011 replica of Look 39, owned by the V&A, appeared in the 2012 exhibition British Design 1948–2012: Innovation in the Modern Age at the V&A, juxtaposed with a photograph of McQueen working on the runway original.
