Bellmer La Poupée (often shortened to La Poupée) is the ninth collection by British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, released 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 by Richard Wilson. 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. Over the course of his career, which lasted from 1992 until his death in 2010, he explored a broad range of ideas and themes, particularly sexuality, death, violence, romanticism, and historicism. 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 had been introduced by Blow and although they were friends, they were also rivals for her 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 Asian-influenced 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. Some items had Japanese-influenced shapes, such as a silk brocade jacket with kimono-like sleeves from Look 61.
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.