Eclect Dissect, Givenchy F/W 1997 Haute Couture by Alexander McQueen

For this show, McQueen’s art director Simon Costin imagined a fictional surgeon who traveled the world collecting exotic objects and women, whom he took apart and reassembled in his laboratory. The runway staged the return of these murdered women who came back to haunt the living. The models embodied their ghosts, dressed in unique garments of Scottish tartan, Spanish lace, kimonos, and Eastern folk dresses decorated with feathers and animals. McQueen acted like a surgeon with the collection, dissecting traditional clothing and reconstructing their forms to create a morbid aura.