Alexander mcqueen platos atlantis inspiration
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V&A mode and Textile Curators discuss three groundbreaking shoe designs from Alexander McQueen's sista catwalk collection, 'Plato's Atlantis' (Spring/Summer 2010).
Widely acclaimed as his finest collection, McQueen's final runway presentation, Plato's Atlantis, referenced the legendary island described by the Greek philosopher, which sank into the sea – predicting a future world in which humanity would need to evolve in order to survive. McQueen incorporated cinematic references to sci-fi and fantasy films like Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and developed a host of new shapes, including the now-iconic Armadillo boot – an entirely new shoe form, without apparent reference to the natural anatomy of the foot; the 3D printed Alien shoe, with its biomorphic, spine-like design, suggesting a sinister combination of biology and mechanics; and the Titanic boot, whose articulated heel and tarnished metal rivets evoke the doomed ocean liner after which it is named.
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This story is part of a series, Past/Present, highlighting images and articles from Vogue that have personal significance to our editors.
One of the most unforgiving platitudes: Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back on Alexander McQueen’s spring 2010 collection, titled Plato’s Atlantis, it’s easy to read the show as a forebear of fashion’s streaming revolution, a herald of biomorphic and biophilic fashion, and the progenitor of our obsession with really quite bizarre footwear. Hindsight also tells us that this transfixing, monolithic runway show was McQueen’s last.
In writing some and reading all of the Past/Present columns on our site, it’s becoming apparent to me how much relief there is in exploring the certainties of what’s come before—and how alleviating it is to find something finite and unchanging in a present where every day brings new anxieties. But here at Vogue Runway, we firmly believe that going back has to push us forward.
Shoes took anthropomorphic forms like t
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Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Dress
Plato’s Atlantis, spring/summer 2010
Gray wool and silk/synthetic knit printed in jellyfish pattern
Courtesy of Alexander McQueen
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce
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Andrew Bolton: As you can see here, McQueen designed many permutations of the frock coat. He made this one for the 2010 collection, Plato’s Atlantis. Here we have Sarah Burton—who was McQueen’s head designer for fourteen years—talk about the collection.
Sarah Burton: He was interested in this concept of hybrid. With those tailored pieces, specifically; they had tailored arms, but the body was jersey. So there’s this weird sort of hybrid and juxtapositioning of different fabrics and how would they react together.
So he took these jersey shifts, put them on the mannequin, and then cut into all of these tailo