Alexander McQueen’s artistic endeavours encompassed more than just the physical alteration of the human form through his designs, he also aimed to revolutionize our emotional and conceptual perceptions of the body. His 2009 show titled Plato’s Atlantis explores the designer’s reflection, influenced by Nietzschean philosophy, on our potential future beyond what we know as humanity. The title of the collection serves as a symbolic representation of vanished societies, prompting an inquiry into the potential consequences of human extinction or the subsequent stages of human development. The concept of human extinction has frequently been a subject of interest in dystopian arena. However, this particular collection presents an exceptionally remarkable portrayal of a potential future characterized by the posthuman.
This essay seeks to examine the posthuman perspective in Alexander McQueen’s fashion shows, drawing on recent studies that adopt a posthumanist framework. These studies analyse how McQueen’s designs challenge conventional notions of the human body by incorporating elements of nonhuman animals and technological artifacts in a deliberate and explicit manner. By doing so, McQueen destabilized some dualistic notions ingrained in Western thought, such as the distinction between humans and non-human animals, between nature and culture, and between biology and technology.
The problem of humanism has been increasingly prevalent across several creative and intellectual domains in recent decades. According to Badmington (2000), several fields such as literature, film, technology, politics, and anthropology are currently witnessing a decline in the dominance of humanist influence. In fact, intellectuals like Herbrechter have expressed the view that “humanism has reached its end”. Even though it’s hard to find the roots of posthumanism or even put a date on it, this school of thought draws on many different intellectual traditions to create a “post-anthropocentric epistemology” that questions whether or not Man is the centre of the Earth (Braidotti, 2022). Castañeda talks about how postmodernism, post-structuralism, deconstruction, and even nihilism (with Friedrich Nietzsche being often thought of as a “proto-posthumanist thinker) (Herbrechter, 2013) have had a big impact on the development of posthumanism. Posthumanism, in broad terms, condemns the exclusive Humanist subject, which was made during the Enlightenment and modernity and is represented by a Man who is “assumed to be masculine, white, urbanized, speaking a standard language, heterosexually inscribed in a reproductive unit and a full citizen of a recognizable polity” (Braidotti 2013).
According to Braidotti since “all living entities are variations on common matter”, a return to matter as a shared constituent paves the way for a bridging of the gap between humans and nonhumans (organic or inorganic). Considering the fact that the posthuman subject is “materialist and vitalist, embodied and embedded, firmly located somewhere,” the return to matter signals a reaction to the linguistic shift provided by postmodernism and deconstruction while also going beyond its ontological and epistemological restrictions. Thus, the posthuman takes a material turn, emphasizing matter (and by extension, the body) as a common ground between humans and nonhumans, as well as a self-organizing and vital aspect present in humans, nonhumans, and technology: “the transversal character of new materialism allows for materiality to emerge as the common denominator across, the human, non-human, and dehumanized entities of all species” (Braidotti 2022). Like new materialism, new feminism places emphasis on the body, which is “rather an ontological site of becoming” rather than a mere biological given. Putting the body back on equal footing with the mind requires rejecting the dualist structure that has permeated Western thought for centuries and which has pitted the two against each other. Castañeda brings in the example of thinking about our biological integration with technology and how it calls into question the supposed naturalness of the human body. This is because posthumanism has taken a material turn.
According to Herbrechter, there is evidence of posthumanist inclinations in modern art. He commends these artistic arrangements for providing a platform for resistance and change, as they challenge traditional representations of the human form in favour of diverse alternative embodiments of subjectivity. Some creative works demonstrate posthuman tendencies by utilizing technology methods to deconstruct, deform, or enhance the human body. The larger societal trends have also affected the fashion industry, as seen by Rei Kawakubo’s 1997 collection titled “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body” at Comme des Garçons, a renowned French luxury fashion brand. This collection effectively deconstructed the human form. This highlights the capacity of certain artistic expressions, including fashion, to serve as a platform for challenging established norms and constructing alternative representations of the human body. Consequently, it underscores the notion that the body is no longer perceived as a static and unchanging entity.
The initial academic investigations into fashion and dress were primarily influenced by semiotics, focusing on the analysis of fashion as a sign-system, rather than establishing a direct relationship between the body and clothing (Barthes 1967). Nevertheless, recent perspectives in the field of fashion studies have shifted towards a materialist approach, emphasizing the embodiment of fashion (Pereira-Ares 2018; Wilson 2003; Entwistle & Wilson 2001; Entwistle 2000; Tsëelon 1997; Davis 1992). The convergence of posthumanism and fashion studies is evident in their shared focus on the body and their adoption of a materialist viewpoint. The examination of the human body as proposed by the field of fashion studies involves addressing the historical neglect that the body has endured within Western discourse.
In her publication titled The Fashioned Body (2000), sociologist Joanne Entwistle developed a theoretical framework known as the “sociology of the body.” This framework emphasizes the interconnectedness of the concepts of “body” and “dress,” asserting that they are inherently intertwined. Entwistle argues that the absence of either element creates a sense of detachment. She posits that no society exists where the body remains unadorned. In light of this, Entwistle claims that “sociological perspective on dress requires moving away from the consideration of dress as object and instead looking at the way in which dress in as embodied activity and one that is embedded within social relations.”
As stated by Entwistle, there exists a dialectic relationship between the body and dress. This inseparable connection between the two facilitates the projection of a cultural identity. Dress plays a crucial role in preparing people for their social embodiment and serves as a means of exhibiting their social identity. In the present era, it is evident that identities have become less stable compared to previous times, leading to an increased fluidity in the world of fashion. This poses both as an obstacle and an opportunity for self-development and social cooperation. According to Fred Davis, the role of dress extends beyond its practical purpose and serves as a symbolic representation of one’s identity. It also serves as a means of expressing the complex and conflicting cultural values that are intertwined within and across different identities.
The fashion literature extensively examines gender identity .According to Elizabeth and Wilson, the aspect of identity most consistently and clearly expressed through clothing is gender, making it a highly significant characteristic of dress. According to Wilson (2003), fashion exhibits a preoccupation with gender, actively shaping and reshaping its boundaries. The preoccupation with associating clothing choices with gender begins from the earliest stages of life, as evidenced by the way in which dress practices either reinforce or challenge the traditional division between femininity and masculinity.
Furthermore, Tsëelon suggests that the formation of identity is dependent upon the repetition and rehearsal of a “corporeal style” by one’s public persona. The theoretical framework of gender performativity, as articulated by Butler, offers a valuable lens through which to analyse the relationship between fashion and dress, since fashion serves as an additional dimension of identity that contributes to the multifaceted nature of gender. Butler’s theory of performativity (1990) is based on the idea that “gender is the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that, over time, give the appearance of substance, of a natural kind of being” As a result, Butler demonstrates the ways in which styles, and by implication, dress and fashion, serve to perform gender. The arbitrary nature of gender is made more apparent by drag performers and the practice of cross-dressing. Drag artists challenge the notion of essentialist gender categories exaggerating gender characteristics. Fashion and dress thus play a significant role in the representation of post-gendered bodies, challenging the traditional binary understanding of gender as male or female. Nevertheless, the utilization of practices such as drag and cross-dressing not only enables the examination of alternative gender configurations but the acts of drag and cross-dressing serve as catalysts for a discussion on disidentification with the conventional or established concept of the “Human,” thereby encouraging a reconsideration of what has traditionally been deemed as human. In a similar vein, there is evidence of a posthuman shift in certain contemporary fashion research.
According to Annamari Vänskä, a fashion researcher, it is argued that rather than considering clothes as inanimate objects used by individuals to express themselves, it is more appropriate to view clothes as dynamic and influential entities that embody and facilitate our comprehension of humanity. Fashion and dress play a significant role in shaping, deconstructing, enhancing, or defining our cultural identity in relation to various factors such as gender, ethnicity, and age. Scholars in the field of fashion, such as Tsëelon, have recognized fashion and dress as a form of “technology of identity”.
In addition, Herbrechter examines the reciprocal connection between humans and technology, asserting that humans have always possessed a fundamentally technological nature. This is evident in their utilization of tools and the recursive nature of symbolic language, which serves as an ultimate tool for ontological representation. Language, therefore, must be recognized as an inherent human prosthesis. Furthermore, the contemporary fusion of technological objects and human subjects, or cyborgization, underscores the inseparable relationship between humans and technology. Thus, the existence of humanity relies upon the interplay between humans, techniques, and technologies.
According to Vänskä, the utilization of fashion might be seen as an early expression of technical prosthesis, adopted by humans to establish differentiation from other non-human animal species. Vänskä argues that the development of human identity is not an innate characteristic, but rather a result of the ongoing process of hominization, which involves the continuous negotiation and establishment of a boundary that distinguishes humans from non-human animals. Vänskä effectively demonstrates the gradual breakdown of the distinction between human and nonhuman animals through certain modern practices, such as the customization of our pet animals whether through clothes or genetic modification. The role of fashion in the process of hominization is of significant importance. Furthermore, the practice of dressing our pets contributes to blur the boundary between humans and nonhumans, since they are now perceived as essential members of modern families
In Plato’s Atlantis collection, which marked McQueen’s final work in the spring/summer of 2010, the designer put forth an eschatological prophecy. This prophecy posited that in the aftermath of the ice caps melting, humanity would be compelled to revert to water to ensure survival. Humans can go back to the ocean, the source of all life, with the help of bioengineering, Gleason points out. The set design for this collection was conceived in the likeness of a laboratory, thereby implying that each model represented a “biological experiment in evolution.” Before the show started, a short movie was projected onto the background screen. Within the context of the narrative, the Brazilian model Raquel Zimmermann underwent a gradual transformation, assuming the characteristics of an aquatic organism. Zimmerman initially laid unclothed on sandy terrain as snakes maneuvered across her body. Afterwards, the model emerged within a water tank containing black eels. Throughout the duration of the scenario, the subject’s body underwent a visual metamorphosis through the projection of digital prints from the collection over it. This transition generated traits that can be associated with a semi-reptilian creature. After the film was finished, both the robotic cameras positioned at the endpoint of the runway recorded the audience and simultaneously projected the visuals of the spectators onto the expansive display, forcing them to confront their own reflections. After a brief blackout, the first model was revealed.
The garments featured digitally printed and engineered prints that closely resembled the skin patterns of various aquatic animals. The show opened with green and brown camouflage prints featuring moths, but quickly moved toward water with the introduction of snake prints, which in turn paved the way for blue and purple ocean-themed prints featuring stingrays and jellyfish. The shift from land to sea was also evident in the hairstyles and makeup of the models. As the evolutionary process progressed, the models underwent a transformation, adopting characteristics that exhibited a combination of human, amphibian, and extra-terrestrial traits. The models’ physical characteristics underwent a transformation due to biological adaptation, resulting in a hybridized appearance. Initially, the models’ hair was styled in braided mounds. However, starting from the twenty-third look, the models’ hair exhibited two prominent protrusions, elongating their heads and creating a macrocephalic appearance, which is believed to be a characteristic commonly associated with intellectually advanced extra-terrestrial beings. In addition, prostheses were used to alter the models’ facial features, elevating their cheekbones and noses to further cement their otherworldly, androgynous appearance. This needs to be read in conjunction with Braidotti’s observations regarding the advantageous nature of integrating with technology in the contemporary era. Braidotti suggests that the gendered, racial, and species boundaries in human-technology interactions are becoming increasingly porous. Today’s technological “other,” a meaningless collection of circuits and feedback loops, operates in a realm of egalitarian fuzziness, if not indeterminacy.
Therefore, the posthuman subject is united through the compassionate recognition of their interconnectedness with the multiple others, many of which, in the era of the Anthropocene, are not anthropomorphic. McQueen’s artistic practice involved a transformative process wherein he reintegrated his models with water and embedded them with characteristics of a distinct species. This act of hybridization served to shift the focus away from the human perspective, thereby decentring it. Simultaneously, McQueen created a nature-culture continuum that embraces the nonhuman, whether it be organic (nonhuman animals, plants) or inorganic (technology) by returning to water and transforming his models into a new species (Smelik 2022, 58).
As McQueen put it, “Bio-hacking means self-designing one’s embodiment […] in a not-so-distant future, bio-engineering will be the solution for humankind.” Gene-editing and gender-editing are now common terms and established norms in science, medicine, and everyday life. They have an impact on “virtually every form of life on Earth” (Braidotti 2022). The Atlantean hybrid may be seen as a prime example of the posthuman subject. Through forming alliances with the nonhuman realm, this hybrid challenges and devalues human subjectivity while also subverting binary distinctions.
According to Smelik, The concept of new materialism adheres to the belief that various entities, such as objects, art, fashion, and even individuals, are composed of matter, specifically combinations of mineral, vegetable, and synthetic materials. The concept of materiality encompasses not only physical materials such as fabrics or garments, but also extends to the human body of the wearer, as well as the broader realms of production and consumption. From a new-materialist standpoint, the concept of ‘matter’ transcends its conventional portrayal as passive and lifeless material upon which human agency is exerted. Instead, it is regarded as inherently vibrant and dynamic. According to Jane Bennett (2010), matter can be described as “vibrant.” The importance of non-human elements within the fashion industry can be highlighted, involving a range of considerations including the use of raw materials and smart materials, as well as the examination of the garment’s texture and its relationship with the human physique. This perspective facilitates the comprehension of fashion as being physically intertwined with a complex web of both human and non-human entities. This perspective shifts the focus away from the human subject, broadening the scope of fashion to encompass not only the human body and identity, but also the realms of technology and ecology.
Clothes and fabrics become imbued with non-human agency as they become intricately bound to the human form. The notion of material agency places emphasis on the significance of technologies in promoting interactions between clothes and the human body, as well as between the human and the non-human. Smelik argues that material agency extends beyond the technology or human body, encompassing a multifaceted amalgamation of the person, fashion, and technology.
The final segment of №13 is widely recognized as one of McQueen’s most notable contributions to the fashion industry. The finale performance showcased Shalom Harlow, a renowned Canadian model, gracefully spinning on a revolving platform while the two automated industrial robots sprayed yellow and black dye onto her voluminous white dress. Harlow spun around like a ballerina as she defended herself from the two robots by spraying them with water. With this, McQueen was obviously alluding to the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). However, McQueen presents a favorable perspective on this interpretation. Following the robots’ “assault,” the model emerges upright, adorned not with blood but solely with paint, potentially symbolizing McQueen’s newfound optimism (Wilson, 2015). The conceptualization of the show’s final segment drew heavily from the works of Rebecca Horn, a renowned German installation and performance artist. Specifically, her pieces “Painting Machine” (1988) and “High Moon”. (1992) These artworks contemplate the death of the artist as they depict the substitution of the artist by machines, symbolizing technology’s growing dominance. In the contemporary era, the artist is no longer deemed indispensable.
Through his mockery of the Arts & Crafts Movement, which advocated for the preservation of traditional craftsmanship, McQueen offered commentary on the widespread presence of technology during the transition into the twenty-first century. Harlow’s dress wasn’t finished until the machines stained its otherwise white fabric, calling into question even his own credibility as a designer. Harlow’s dress was an interaction between the model, the robots and McQueen. Her spins and movement were just as much involved in creation of the final product as the robot, as much as McQueen’s conceptualisation and silhouette creation of the dress. The aforementioned interaction served as an extraordinary demonstration of new materiality and the posthuman corporeal form. Through the juxtaposition of McQueen’s №13 and Horns’ installations, Gleason offers insight into the role of robots as agents, thereby challenging the centrality of human subjectivity in art. Do these robots possess human-like characteristics to some extent? Moreover, if they possess such attributes, what does that imply about our own identity? McQueen offers insights into the dynamics between humans and machines during the transition to the twenty-first century. His perspective emphasizes the displacement of human subjectivity in favour of interconnectedness and mutual relationships (Bethune 2015). Therefore, McQueen’s work can be seen as aligning with the posthuman pursuit of embracing technology as a fundamental component of the zoe-egalitarianism concept put forth by Braidotti. (What Braidotti has coded as zoe, or “the wider scope of human and non-human life,” is what posthumanism refers to when it embraces nonhuman others as a part of an expanding subjectivity.)
Alexander McQueen’s designs, particularly exemplified through his Plato’s Atlantis collection and his innovative runway show №13, offer profound insights into the posthuman condition. His visionary designs pushed the boundaries of conventional human identity and challenged established norms regarding the body, nature, and technology. McQueen’s work emphasized the interconnectedness of humans with the non-human world, blurring the lines between the organic and inorganic, human and non-human, and nature and culture. By merging the human form with elements of the natural world and technology, McQueen deconstructed traditional dualistic notions and questioned the established hierarchies of Western thought. His creations embodied a material turn, emphasizing the shared matter as a common ground between humans and non-humans. McQueen’s fashion artistry not only challenged the static perception of the human body but also served as a platform for redefining cultural identities. Furthermore, McQueen’s exploration of the symbiotic relationship between humans and technology, as seen in his incorporation of industrial robots into his runway shows, resonates with the posthumanist perspective.
In essence, Alexander McQueen’s designs offer a glimpse into a posthuman future where the boundaries of human identity are porous and constantly evolving. His visionary creations challenge us to reconsider our relationship with the world, our bodies, and the ever-expanding realm of technology. Through his artistry, McQueen invites us to embrace a posthuman ethos characterized by interconnectedness, fluidity, and a recognition of the multiplicity of identities in the Anthropocene era.
References
Castañeda, S.E. (2021) POSTHUMANISM IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY: ON HUMAN ANIMALS AND CYBORGS. The University of Santiago Compostela
Smelik, A. (2018), ‘New materialism: A theoretical framework for fashion in the age of technological innovation’, International Journal of Fashion Studies,
A. Rocamora and A. Smelik (eds), Thinking Through Fashion: A Guide to Key Theorists, London: I.B. Tauris
Haraway, D. ([1985] 1991), ‘A manifesto for cyborgs: Science, technology and socialist feminism in the 1980s’, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, London: Free Association Books
Entwistle, J. (2002), ‘The dressed body’, in M. Evans and E. Lee (eds), Real Bodies: A Sociological Introduction, Houndmills, Basingstoke and New York
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