'90s Beauty Moment: Alexander McQueen's No.13 show, with Paralympic athlete Aimee Mullins
If you’re a regular listener to the BeautyMe Podcast or follow my TikTok then you might know that I produced a series of ‘90s Beauty Moments as an alternative Advent Calendar for the month of December. I don’t really enjoy ‘enforced content creation’, but, I did that series because I wanted to see if I could. As time passed and I became more accustomed to sitting in front of my phone camera and sharing moments I truly felt anyone from any generation could love, I realised once again, just how much I loved beauty, in all its forms. Now that the series is over, I’ll be picking out certain episodes and adding a little more meat to the bones I provided, so today, I’m sharing a little bit more about my beloved Alexander McQueen.
I’ve always been attracted to pretty things, but I also believe there is beauty in everything, even in decay - I’ll just as likely photograph some dying flowers as I would some new Pat McGrath makeup. Beauty isn’t just about glowing, youthful skin; it’s also in the lines and wrinkles that hint at our life stories. I feel like Alexander McQueen had a real obsession with the darker side of beauty; so many of his shows featured references to animals - from feathers to skulls - and for his 13th show, No.13, he showed the fashion world how his fascination with prosthetics created for the First World War inspired an entire collection.
No.13 was the name of McQueen’ SS99 collection, shown in 1998.
If you know your fashion then you’re probably thinking you know exactly which moment I’m going to talk about when it comes to this beautiful, ground-breaking show. You’re probably thinking I’m talking about the finale, where we see model (and former ballet dancer) Shalom Harlow wearing a cotton trapeze dress that’s being spray painted by two robots hired from a car manufacturer. It’s definitely a striking moment in fashion history and came up in conversation again recently when Paris-based designer Coperni’s SS23 show featured two men spray-painting a dress onto top model Bella Hadid.
Bella Hadid onstage for Coperni’s SS23 show
But for me, there’s another moment – the first time a designer casts a model with prosthetic limbs to walk on the catwalk. The show itself was a romantic yet sinister tribute to the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 1800s, something that inspired McQueen throughout his short career. So many of the designs featured ruffled leather and lace, laser cut wooden corsets, with many of the pieces being inspired by the workshops of Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton, which pioneered prosthetics for those injured during the first World War. This is also a show where we first notice McQueen’s evolving approach to footwear as he sends Paralympic champion Aimee Mullins down the runway wearing a beautiful pair of cherry wood prosthetic legs that were hand-carved to a design of McQueen’s, said to be inspired by the work of Dutch-British sculptor and wood-carver, Grinling Gibbons.
In an interview with Another Magazine, Aimee Mullins said she wanted to be involved because it was her ‘mission’ to challenge prevailing attitudes towards beauty.
The cherry wood prosthetics, designed by Alexander McQueen for Aimee Mullins
"I want to be seen as beautiful because of my disability, not in spite of it," she said. "People keep asking me: 'why do you want to get into this world that’s so bitchy and so much about physical perfection?' That’s why. That’s why I want to do it," she said.
McQueen himself said: "I wouldn’t swap the people I’ve been working with for a supermodel. They’ve got so much dignity and there’s not a lot of dignity in high fashion."
This is also the first show that made Alexander McQueen cry, and I can really see why. If you want to hear more, listen to the mini podcast dedicated to the show below.
For more ‘90s Beauty Moments, you can listen to BeautyMe Podcast anywhere you like, or watch the videos for all 25 moments, including this one, over on my TikTok @charissekenion. Thanks for reading.