Bellmer La Poupée

''Bellmer La Poupée'' is the ninth collection by British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, made for the Spring/Summer 1997 season of his eponymous fashion house. The collection used ''La Poupée'', a 1934 series by surrealist photographer Hans Bellmer, as a jumping-off point to deconstruct narrow standards of beauty considered acceptable by the fashion industry. The collection featured McQueen's signature sharp tailoring and dresses that ranged from commercial shift dresses to experimental high-collared designs, embellished with unusual zipper placement and graffiti. Shaun Leane and Dai Rees were recruited to produce experimental jewellery and accessories.

The runway show was staged on 27 September 1996 at the Royal Horticultural Hall at 80 Vincent Square in London. The stage was a shallow tank filled with water and lined with black plastic, inspired by the art installation ''20:50''. Models wore translucent platform shoes so they appeared to be walking atop the water. Debra Shaw, a Black model, walked while shackled to a square metal frame, generating controversy over the perceived reference to slavery. Shaw has discussed her experience in the show as a positive one.

The clothing and runway show were well-received, and the collection is remembered as one of McQueen's best. Critical analysis has focused on Shaw's appearance, the effectiveness of the Bellmer inspiration, and McQueen's subversion of fashion industry norms. Items from ''La Poupée'' have been photographed for magazines, worn on the red carpet, and featured in museum exhibitions.

Background

British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was known for his imaginative, sometimes controversial designs, and dramatic fashion shows. During his nearly twenty-year career, he explored a broad range of ideas and themes, including historicism, romanticism, femininity, sexuality, and death. He began as an apprentice on Savile Row, earning a reputation as an expert tailor. In 1992, McQueen graduated from Central Saint Martins, a London art school, with his master's degree in fashion design. His degree collection, ''Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims'', was bought in its entirety by magazine editor Isabella Blow, who became his mentor and his muse. McQueen's reputation for shocking runway shows began early, and his sexualised designs and aggressive styling drew accusations of misogyny. The controversy over his sixth collection, '' Highland Rape'' (Autumn/Winter 1995), is considered to be the launching point of his fame.

His work was highly autobiographical: he incorporated elements of his memories, feelings, and personal fixations into his designs and runway shows. His interest in Surrealism reached back to his childhood. Throughout his career, he habitually played with shapes and silhouettes, using hair, make-up, accessories, and styling to make his models look unnatural or inhuman. He loved photography, experimenting with taking his own and collecting prints, and many collections were inspired by the work of his favourite photographers. McQueen often described the fashion industry as toxic and suffocating, and was often ambivalent about continuing his career. Several collections critiqued the industry as chaotic and deranged.

McQueen often worked with other creatives to produce things outside his area of expertise for runway shows, such as hats or jewellery; he typically relied on a close set of regular partners. McQueen had a longstanding and particularly close working relationship with jeweller Shaun Leane, who had worked with him as early as ''Highland Rape'' after they met during their student years. Simon Costin was McQueen's set designer and art director on several early shows. McQueen's usual hatmaker was Philip Treacy; they were friends but also rivals for Blow's attention.

Concept and collection

Inspiration

''Bellmer La Poupée'', often shortened to ''La Poupée'', is the ninth collection by McQueen for his eponymous fashion house, for the Spring/Summer 1997 season. It was inspired by ''La'' ''Poupée'' (), a 1934 series by German surrealist photographer Hans Bellmer, which depicted deconstructed pubescent-looking dolls in various disturbing poses. Some, including McQueen, have interpreted his work as a response to the rise of the Nazi Party in 1930s Germany and their desire for aesthetic perfection and control of human behaviour. The Nazis eventually declared Bellmer's work " degenerate art" and he fled to Paris to escape them in 1938.

With Bellmer's work in mind, McQueen intended to draw an analogy between fascist aesthetic ideals and the narrow standards of beauty and taste considered acceptable by the fashion industry. In particular, he was reacting to the unforgiving, minimalist style of Italian brand Prada, which was dominant in fashion at the time. Prada has occasionally been labelled "fascist" fashion because of how strict and militaristic some of its designs appear. McQueen wanted to showcase a type of beauty which did not adhere to top-down dictates about propriety and attractiveness, and which permitted the appearance of a wider – and stranger – range of women, consistent with what he saw in theatre and film.

Collection

McQueen's show notes described ''La Poupée'' as fusing the "purity of Far Eastern culture with the sharp punk elements of the West". The collection focused on McQueen's signature tailoring, with close-fitting suits, jumpsuits with deep cuts down the back of the neck or the cleavage, and origami-inspired jackets. Many of these items had exaggerated points at hems and lapels. Bumsters, a style of trousers whose extremely low waist exposed the top of the intergluteal cleft, returned to the runway; McQueen had developed them for his second collection, ''Taxi Driver'' (Autumn/Winter 1993).

Dresses were presented in colourful brocades, white silks, and sheer fabrics worn over bikini bottoms. In terms of silhouettes, there were shift dresses, bias cut evening dresses, and flapper dresses with fringe. More unusually, McQueen also showed cocktail dresses with collars so high they obscured the face, which have been described as a Surrealist touch.

Many items were embellished with slashes of what looked like neon spray paint. A tyre track print that first occurred in ''The Birds'' (Spring/Summer 1995) was used again for Look 63. Zippers were placed in unusual places: on the knees, or in spots that would be revealing, such as across the nipples. The slashing effect caused by the zippers may have been a reference to the dismembered look of Bellmer's dolls. Judith Watt felt they may have been a reference to the Surrealist designs of Elsa Schiaparelli. She also considered that they may have been inspired by ''Manism 2'', a 1991 collection by John McKitterick; McQueen worked for McKitterick briefly during the early 1990s.

Accessories

Dai Rees, a Welsh sculptor and friend of McQueen's, was responsible for the show's headpieces and leather accessories. He was recruited by Katy England, who styled for McQueen in addition to working at the fashion magazine '' Dazed & Confused''. Rees normally worked in pottery, but was working on something new – latticed headpieces made from stripped-down quill feathers – and had been told by a friend to show his work to a fashion stylist. England directed Rees to McQueen, who was immediately taken and commissioned fifteen pieces for the show: cages for the head in various metallic shades, as well as quill-covered leather items. According to Rees, McQueen had an ulterior motive in hiring him: he knew it would irritate Treacy, his usual hatmaker-cum-rival, who did not get along with Rees.

McQueen commissioned another friend, jeweller Shaun Leane, to work on the show. The jewellery items he commissioned were unusual – grids worn on the face, or neck-pieces that protruded well off the body. Theorist Caroline Evans wrote that they "mirrored the elegant cruelty of McQueen's razor-sharp cutting techniques".

McQueen worked with Leane to develop larger items that would restrict the models' bodies in various ways. He hoped to have them move unnaturally, as a reference to Bellmer's mechanical dolls and marionettes. Leane produced a square frame that locked on to the model's body above the elbows and knees, and another that fit into the sleeves of a jacket and forced the model's arms to extend horizontally. Although the coat has conventional raglan sleeves, the distorting effect of the frame gives the effect of a "doll that has been pieced together". Authors have variously interpreted this look as being a reference to wings in flight or being fastened in stocks.

McQueen asked Debra Shaw, who is Black, to wear the square frame for the runway show. She had worked with McQueen in previous shows, including ''Dante'' (Autumn/Winter 1996). Shaw asked him to explain his thinking, concerned that the frame might have been a reference to slavery of Black people. McQueen explained that it was intended to be a commentary on the constraining nature of fashion. She felt his explanation was sincere, and thought the restraint would have been constructed far differently, with chains, and shackles at the wrists and ankles, if it were meant to evoke chattel slavery.

Runway show

Production details

The runway show was staged on 27 September 1996 at the Royal Horticultural Hall at 80 Vincent Square in London. The show was sponsored by Tanqueray, a London-based gin brand. The invitations and show programme featured reproductions of some of Bellmer's photographs. There was an audience of roughly 800 people, including representatives from LVMH, who would shortly be McQueen's managers when he took his position at Givenchy in October that year. It was, at that time, the largest audience McQueen had ever had. Victoria and David Beckham were meant to attend, but ran late, so McQueen started the show without them.

Sam Gainsbury oversaw production while Katy England managed styling. Hair and make-up are credited to Barnabe and Topolino, respectively. Simon Chaudoir was responsible for lighting. It was the first show which Sarah Burton worked on; she eventually became McQueen's right-hand woman and succeeded him as the McQueen label's creative director. At this stage, her role was to finish garments once McQueen had designed and cut the patterns.

Staging and styling

McQueen asked his friend and collaborator Simon Costin to take care of set design. The men wanted to challenge the audience, and the increased budget from the Tanqueray sponsorship allowed them enough leeway to experiment with more elaborate concepts. McQueen had recently attended the Saatchi Gallery and viewed ''20:50'', an art installation by Richard Wilson which consists of a room filled to waist height with black oil, except for a short inset walkway that allows the audience to walk into the space. He wanted to replicate the still, reflective look of Wilson's work for the stage of the ''La Poupée'' runway show. After some testing, Costin discovered that the floors in the Horticultural Hall did not vibrate and decided it was possible.

He had a large plywood frame constructed to serve as the stage floor: it was long, wide, and feet deep. He lined it with black plastic to give it the black mirrored look of ''20:50''. On the day of the show, the frame took five hours to fill with water. Broken mirrors behind screens bounced light onto the ceiling, creating a ripple effect. Costin was forced to include Tanqueray's logo in the set, at their request, but put it in black on a black background so it was invisible.

Models wore clear plastic platform shoes so they appeared to be walking on the water, inspired by Biblical stories of Jesus doing the same. Their make-up combined natural with dramatic: eyelids and lips were left neutral, but a thick air-brushed line of glittery metallic color – mostly cool tones like silver and blue – was swept from temple to temple across the nose and cheekbones. Hair and wigs were styled to be artificial-looking to evoke a doll-like appearance. McQueen directed the models to exaggerate their movements provocatively and theatrically. Most runway shows required models to simply walk the runway to present the clothing, but McQueen wanted an element of performance art in his shows. Wilcox 2015, p. 33

Catwalk presentation

The models entered at the rear of the stage. Two white blocks framed the doorway, above a dozen steps the models had to descend to enter the tank. The stillness of the water made the surface appear to be a solid surface until the first models surprised the audience by stepping down into it.

Halfway through the show, Shaw entered the stage wearing the square metal frame with a see-through black flapper dress, barefoot. The frame was attached to her upper arms and thighs via shackles, forcing her to walk in an unnaturally angular position. Shaw had difficulty descending the stairs and recalled the audience applauding when she reached the bottom. She proceeded through the water slowly, swaying and waving her hands. To exit the stage afterwards, she recalled having to shuffle sideways "offtagelike a crab". Backstage, Shaw had the frame removed immediately and refused to wear it for the finale.

For the finale, a model came out wearing pink trousers, with her head and torso encompassed by a polyhedral sculpture made of steel rods and transparent fabric. Live butterflies fluttered within. It was created by Simon's brother Anthony Costin. McQueen described it as inspired by the upcoming turn of the millennium; he thought people in the future might begin to carry their homes with them "like a snail would".

Reception

''La Poupée'' garnered positive reviews upon its debut. Author Andrew Wilson describes the contemporary response as "ecstatic", while Katherine Gleason felt it was another instance of McQueen presenting a controversial runway show with positively-reviewed clothes. Critics were pleased with the tailoring, which featured innovative cutaways and silhouettes, and the theatrical runway show.

Tamsin Blanchard for ''The Independent'' was excited about ''La Poupée'', calling it McQueen's "most accomplished collection to date". She felt the designs were both creative and wearable, highlighting several, including a "fine, sheer mesh dress embroidered with dragons" as favourites. At the time, McQueen was tipped to become the next head designer at Givenchy, and Blanchard felt the collection proved that McQueen was capable of the job.

Shaw's appearance in the metal frame caused significant controversy; McQueen was accused of shackling Shaw like a slave and exploiting her. Fashion writer Iain R. Webb recalled it as "uncomfortable to watch". Designer Antony Price said that although the frame was an interesting idea, "no one really got it". McQueen publicly denied the connection to slavery, explaining that he wanted to make her movements unnatural, like a marionette, as a reference to Bellmer's dolls. Writing in 2015, curator Claire Wilcox thought the controversy over the frame overshadowed the "sophistication and elegance" of the collection's designs. The same year, ''I-D'' deemed Shaw's appearance in the frame as one of the defining looks of McQueen's career.

''La Poupée'' is well-remembered in retrospect. ''Vogue'' called it the most provocative of McQueen's 1990s shows. Author Katherine Gleason described it as "shocking – both hideous and beautiful at the same time". Both Judith Watt and Dana Thomas commented on the wearable, commercial designs that formed the backbone of the collection. Thomas quoted McQueen explaining it was deliberate: "This season is all about smoothing down the edges."

Analysis

''Bellmer La Poupée'' is noted for its subversion of fashion norms. Wilcox wrote that, like Bellmer, McQueen's work often "manipulated the tropes of fashion in sometimes disturbing though exhilarating ways". Writing separately, theorist Caroline Evans concurred, noting that McQueen's interest was in exploring taboos relating to the human body that fashion normally avoided. She tied the inspiration from Bellmer's dolls, disjointed and remade, to McQueen's tendency to juxtapose themes of death and sexuality, although she noted that his interpretation of Bellmer's work was not literal. Fashion historian Ingrid Loschek argued that the association between the collection and Bellmer's work was less clear than in "The Beauty of Imperfection", a photo project McQueen had worked on with Nick Knight which featured photographs of disabled models. Cultural theologian Robert Covolo discussed ''La Poupée'' from a lens of Christian philosophy, arguing that it was the first of McQueen's shows to present what he called "miraculous bodies – beautifully dressed women enacting the impossible". Through his designs and runway shows, McQueen attempted to force audiences to look beyond what is normally conveyed by fashion to confront difficult truths. In ''La Poupée'', McQueen used Shaw's performance to challenge "the fascism of fashion" and its inability to portray interior truths.

Authors commented on the collection's themes of life and death, particularly through water. Wilson thought the butterfly enclosure from the end of the show was intended to demonstrate the transience of life. He also suggested the use of water was a reference to a friend of Katy England's, David Mason, who had committed suicide by jumping into the River Thames; the show was dedicated to his memory. Loschek felt the runway show depicted the closeness of life and death: water is associated with life, but the restraints on the models signified danger. Theorist Mélissa Diaby Savané identified "death and madness" as recurring themes for McQueen's shows, which he presented both in his designs and in the runway theatrics. She cited ''La Poupée'' as an example, describing it as characterised by "a feeling of paralyzing terror and restraint". This feeling was created overtly by the frames, which forced unnatural movements, but also by the other garments like tight skirts and high heels, which restrain the body and movement in less obvious ways. She wondered if McQueen was denouncing "the prison" of beauty standards or simply expressing his own "transgressive" thoughts.

Other academics have commented on the jewellery and accessories in the show. Ana Honigman felt that Honor Fraser's necklace resembled a "chic version of the Grim Reaper's sickle" in the process of decapitation. The contrast of delicate fabric and aggressive metal accessories for her emphasised the models' vulnerable skin, but their confidence in this exposed state made it feel to her like "a show of strength". Evans described the frames created by Leane as "objects with agency" – things that, by design, make something happen in a particular way. The arm frame, for example, forced the wearer "to walk in a distinctive and ungainly way". Henrique Grimaldi Figueredo used the frames and extreme jewellery in ''La Poupée'' as an example of how McQueen portrayed a connection "between beauty rituals and death".

In a separate essay, Wilcox cited ''La Poupée'' as an example of how demanding McQueen was of his models compared to other designers. His demand for aesthetic control and energetic performances sometimes provoked a backlash from critics, who accused him of misogyny. McQueen argued against this charge in general; in the case of ''La Poupée'', he said his intent was to push the body to its extremes for artistic purposes. He felt it was a designer's job "to transcend what fashion is and what it could be". Frankel argued that McQueen's women "were powerful, even terrifying", and noted that models typically expressed that working with him felt like "empowerment".

Some authors have connected ''Bellmer La Poupée'' with ''Voss'' (Spring/Summer 1999). Andrew Wilson compared their respective finales. The ''Voss'' finale featured a woman in an enclosure full of moths, and was inspired by the work of Joel-Peter Witkin, another photographer whose work is both surreal and macabre. He thought McQueen may have seen a similarity between the work of Bellmer and Witkin; the designer was known to be a fan of both. Fashion theorist Alma Hernandez Hernandez Briseño argued that these shows blurred the line between fantasy and reality. In her view, ''La Poupée'' "presented the conflict between the real body and the unnatural, plastic body" in several ways. The reflection of the runway in the water created an unreal space. The use of silk and metal, the distorting eye make-up, and the unusual accessories all made the models appear to be doll-like. The exaggerated, performative movements of the models blended the fictional doll identity with the reality of the fashion show. Finally, the surreal image of the moth enclosure in the finale was a last touch of unreality before the show ended and real life resumed.

Legacy

The mouthpiece worn in Look 1, which is held in the mouth like a horse's bit and wraps around the ears to extend forward into two points, featured in an editorial for '' The Face'' by Sean Ellis. Nick Knight photographed Devon Aoki wearing a version of Look 62, one of the funnel-necked cocktail dresses, for the Spring 1997 issue of ''Visionaire''.

Shaw has maintained that the show was a positive experience for her. She told ''Dazed'' magazine she did it partly because she thought it would "put ername on the map". In an interview with Dana Thomas for her book '' Gods and Kings'' (2015), she said "I felt like my body was in a picture frame." She stated that she felt pride in her ethnic background, and said she "would never do anything that would be humiliating." In 2024, Shaw spoke to British ''Vogue'' about her experiences with McQueen, including ''La Poupée'', saying: "Wearing his clothes made me feel empowered! Statuesque! Mighty! Extraterrestrial! And they helped me come to a greater understanding of the frame of my own body".

Later shows

McQueen used Surrealist photography as inspiration in many later shows. Sometimes he simply incorporated images, as he did in ''Eshu'' (Autumn/Winter 2000), which featured a vest printed with a 1932 Wanda Wulz photograph that superimposes the artist's portrait with her cat. Other designs more literally embodied these images. A runway look from '' No. 13'' (Spring/Summer 1999) replicated a 1936 fashion photograph in which the model is surrounded by a coil of wire, while the finale of ''Voss'' recreated the 1983 Witkin photograph "Sanitarium".

''La Poupée'' was the first of many McQueen shows to incorporate water in some way; he had a lifelong affinity for it and was an avid swimmer and diver. ''Untitled'' (Spring/Summer 1998) and ''Eye'' (Spring/Summer 2000) both used water features on their runways, and the advertising campaign for ''Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'' (Autumn/Winter 2002) depicted a model suspended in a water-filled vessel. His final fully-realised collection, '' Plato's Atlantis'' (Spring/Summer 2009), envisioned humanity evolving to become aquatic in flooded post-climate change world.

Red carpet and museums

Actress Jourdan Dunn wore Look 22, a black jumpsuit with a plunging V-neckline, for a red carpet event in February 2024. Emily Chan of ''Vogue'' noted that it was on trend with similar necklines seen at Paris Fashion Week that season. She quoted Cherie Balch of vintage fashion archive Shrimpton Couture explaining that McQueen "was so ahead of his time" that his archival designs "have this uncanny ability to feel of the moment" despite their age.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York City owns the white suit with tyre track print from Look 63. It also owns two other unspecified looks from the collection, a jacket and a jumpsuit. The Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A) owns the pink jumpsuit from Look 23. The National Gallery of Victoria owns Look 18, a black jacket with trailing sleeves and a gold patterned skirt with thigh-placed zipper, and one of the pink quill headpieces.

'' Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty'', a retrospective exhibition of McQueen's designs shown in 2011 at The Met and in 2015 at the V&A, featured two black jackets and a black jumpsuit from ''La Poupée''. Two of the Dai Rees headpieces appeared as well: a brown leather chin strap with white quills and a black glitter quill headdress.

Notes

References

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External links

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{{Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen collections
1990s fashion
September 1996 in the United Kingdom