Among the myriad emotions, horror is one of the strongest emotions we experience and Halloween is the day to celebrate this emotion. The veil between our world and the other world lifts, allowing various horrid creatures and all kinds of troubled spirits to creep out, and the fashion world is also not spared. Many distinguished fashion designers from all over the globe have played with this emotion unveiling horror haute couture on the runways that are horrifically mesmerizing and beautifully unsettling!
Horror as a theme has always occupied a place in fashion, but the late Alexander McQueen a.k.a 'Master of Malevolence'. truly brought horror alive on the runway. Naming his graduation collection 'Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims' McQueen established his curiosity for morbidity from the very start. Drawing inspiration from Victorian gothic, McQueen creations reflected a kind of haunting melancholy. in his short but prolific career, McQueen exhibited some of the stunning creations and his flair for the dramatic just added to the extravaganza.
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| Alexander McQueen |
He earned the moniker ‘enfant terrible’ for his collection, Nihilism in which the model took to the runway donning garments splattered in blood and mud. Irish folklore of the Banshee was personified on McQueen’s stage along with Alfred Hitchcock, both getting a fashionable makeover. A look-alike print of veins and corsets filled with live worms, ‘The Hunger’ spoke about vampires, whereas ‘Golden Shower’ through silver ribcages and spines presented the horror of the film The Omen.
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| Alexander McQueen's |
The brutal murder of the Romanov dynasty was depicted in ‘Joan’ while ‘The Eye’ transformed the runway into a bed of nails.
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| Alexander McQueen's |
One of the most unsettling of McQueen’s show was VOSS for which the audience sat around a mirrored cube where they were forced to stare at themselves and the show began with the light illuminating a hospital scene on the other side of the mirror. McQueen manifested a nightmare circus in ‘What a Merry Go Round’ and in ‘The Dance of the Twisted Bull’ he impaled his models with a bullfighter spears. The ‘Memory of Elizabeth How, Salem 1962’ revolved around black magic seeking inspiration from an ancestor who was a victim of the Salem Witch Trials.
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| Alexander McQueen's |
McQueen had exhibited more than forty collections and in each one the emotion of horror was illustrated with elegance and beauty. Even after he passed away his legacy is still alive, or quite undead!
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| Olivier Theyskens |
There are other fashion designers who flirted with horror, beautifying it.
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| Olivier Theyskens's |
There is for example Olivier Theyskens, whose ‘gothic extravaganzas’ collection created from his grandmother’s bed-sheets earned him the title of ‘The prince of dark romanticism’.
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| Olivier Theyskens's |
He often reflected the tragic 18th century romanticism.
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| Riccardo Tisci |
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| Riccardo Tisci's |
The God of Gothic, Riccardo Tisci, has an affinity to the genre of horror couture and his aesthetic imagination created some of the most splendid couture.
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| Riccardo Tisci's |
The founder of the cult label Undercover, Jun Takahashi’s runway shows displays sinister creations. Takahashi is best known for the ‘Black Grace’ a creation for Louis Vuitton.
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| Jun Takahashi |
John Galliano, a fashion legend with the ability in exhibiting grotesque elegantly, is the forerunner in the Haute Gothic culture.
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| John Galliano |
Blurring the line between the living and dead, countless designers have burrowed into the darkest deepest corners of the underworld and brought horror in haute couture, which is compelling in its honesty and an alluring darkness.
