Scanners (collection)

Scanners (Autumn/Winter 2003) was the twenty-second collection by British fashion designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. The collection is based on the idea of exiles travelling eastward through northern Eurasia: Siberia, Tibet, and finally Japan. The designs borrow heavily from the traditional clothing and art of those areas, and reflect an overall aesthetic of luxury, with voluminous silhouettes and rich materials. Cultural motifs include heavy embroidery, traditional patterns, and kimono-like shapes.
The runway show was staged on 8 March 2003 at the Grande halle de la Villette in Paris, with production by McQueen's usual creative team. The set was made to look like a desolate tundra with rocks and snow. A clear plastic wind tunnel was suspended over the runway on industrial scaffolding for some models to walk through. Fifty-nine looks were presented in roughly three stages, representing the journey through each of Siberia, Tibet, and Japan. The show ended with a model struggling through the wind tunnel in an enormous kimono.
Critical reception was mostly positive and sales were reportedly strong. Academic analysis has considered whether McQueen was engaging in cultural appropriation of Asian culture. Items from Scanners have appeared in exhibitions like the retrospective Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.
British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was known for his imaginative, sometimes controversial designs. During his nearly twenty-year career, he explored a broad range of ideas and themes, including historicism, romanticism, femininity, sexuality, and death. He began as an apprentice on Savile Row, earning a reputation as an expert tailor; later he learned dressmaking as head designer for French fashion house Givenchy. Although he worked in ready-to-wear – clothing produced for retail sale – his showpiece designs featured a degree of craftsmanship that verged on haute couture – extremely high-end custom designs with elaborate handiwork.
McQueen's personal fixations had a strong influence on his designs. He played on visual and thematic contrasts for effect. He incorporated his love of nature into his works with visual motifs and organic materials. The set for his Autumn/Winter 1999 collection The Overlook had depicted an isolated winter landscape inspired by the Stanley Kubrick horror film The Shining (1980). Scanners returned to a winter setting, the opposite of the Amazon rainforest inspiration for Irere (Spring/Summer 2003). McQueen was also fascinated with Japanese culture and Buddhism. He had referenced Japanese clothing in his previous collection Voss (Spring/Summer 2003) and would do so again in It's Only a Game (Spring/Summer 2005).
His fashion shows were often elaborate to the point of being performance art, and audiences began to expect him to present dramatic spectacles. Previous seasons had seen models drenched with artificial rain (Untitled, Spring/Summer 1998), sprayed with paint by robots (No. 13, Spring/Summer 1999), or trapped in a faux-padded cell (Voss, Spring/Summer 2000). Although generally well-received, Irere had garnered some criticism for its fairly mundane show.
Scanners (Autumn/Winter 2003) was the twenty-second collection McQueen designed for his eponymous fashion house. The collection is based on the idea of exiles travelling eastward through northern Eurasia: Siberia, Tibet, and finally Japan. The materials, silhouettes, and aesthetics of the designs borrow heavily from the traditional clothing and art of those areas, reflecting the cultural exchanges that followed the Silk Road and the resulting spread of Buddhism. McQueen was inspired by the view of the tundra on a flight from London to Japan.
Overall, the collection had a sense of opulence, and McQueen's precision tailoring was prominent throughout. Silhouettes were luxuriously oversized, with frock coats over tight waists and full A-line skirts. There were also draped and empire waist dresses. Materials were similarly rich: brocades, fox and mink furs, and leather. Other items were rendered in modern materials like neoprene. Some critics suggested an influence from McQueen's time at Givenchy, particularly in the silhouettes and level of craftsmanship. As was typical for McQueen, there were historicist touches throughout.
The collection opened with Russian-inspired pieces featuring embroidery, pom-poms, metallic trimming, and fur – known historically in Russia as "soft gold" for its value as a luxury good. The embroidery may have drawn on imagery from Russian folk tales. This phase also included jute and quilted fabric for several items. The muted khaki tones and use of quilting suggested an influence from military chic. Although placed in the Russian section of the show, the panelled structure of Look 12 is reminiscent of samurai armour.
The introduction of checkered fabric and a complex geometrical floral pattern called kati rimo indicated a transition to Tibetan-inspired clothing. Kai rimo, meaning "brocade design", is a traditional Tibetan pattern derived from Chinese textiles. Items with this pattern, including fabric and painted furniture, are associated with Buddhism because they were often used for temple decorations. While traditionally multi-coloured, McQueen's versions in this section were rendered in black and white. Addional Tibetan-inspired elements include full circle skirts, use of shearling, and decorative braiding. The checked patterns, particularly the Glengarry cap from Look 33, have been variously interpreted as military chic or op art. Others have interpreted this segment, chiefly the bodysuits in leather, as drawing on motocross, punk fashion, and cyberpunk fashion, with influence from the film Blade Runner (1982).
The final phase of Scanners borrowed from the clothing and culture of Japan, incorporating kimono-like silhouettes and sunrise motifs that played on the country's nickname, Land of the Rising Sun. In this portion, geometric patterns were rendered in red on white, particularly shokkō, the Japanese name for the Tibetan kai rimo pattern. Like kai rimo, shokkō patterns were also associated with Buddhist temples. Some looks may have been influenced by Japanese manga characters.
The runway show was staged on 8 March 2003 at the Grande halle de la Villette in Paris. Invitations were printed with images of McQueen's brain scan. The soundtrack included the Sid Vicious cover of "My Way", the Tiffany cover of "I Think We're Alone Now", and the Sparks single "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us". Air raid sirens played over pop music from Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. The showpiece sections featured selections from the 1904 opera Madama Butterfly.
McQueen typically worked with a consistent creative team for his shows. Katy England was responsible for overall styling, while Gainsbury & Whiting handled production. Joseph Bennett, who had designed all of McQueen's runways since No. 13 (Spring/Summer 1999), took care of set design. Eugene Souleiman styled hair, while Val Garland handled makeup.
Philip Treacy created headwear for the collection, including Glengarry caps, headpieces based on the Japanese rising sun motif, and an engraved red and white glass mitre worn with Look 47. The mitre may have been a tribute to Isabella Blow, who was a mutual friend and muse of Treacy and McQueen; she wore a similar hat in a Vanity Fair portrait in 1997. The hat worn with Look 2, a black peaked cap adorned with a circle of black feathers shaped like spears may also have been a reworking of one that Blow wore for The New Yorker in March 2001.
The set was made to look like a desolate tundra with rocks and snow. The backdrop was a satellite photograph of Antarctica. McQueen said he "wanted it to be like a nomadic journey across the tundra. A big, desolate space, so that nothing would distract from the work." A clear plastic wind tunnel was suspended over the runway on industrial scaffolding for some models to walk through. Bennett designed the tunnel to look like a "35 mm film strip" in which models fought a "horizontal blizzard". Models were styled with large buns placed, like topknots, at the top of their heads; topknots were traditionally worn by samurai.
Fifty-nine looks were presented. The show opened with Adina Fohlin crossing the overhead walkway wearing a fur-trimmed vest and A-line skirt, followed by a series of about twenty Russian-inspired looks. Looks 23 to 41 were monochromatic black and white, with Tibetan-inspired patterns. Following these looks, the lights went down and Fohlin returned to the walkway, which now functioned as a wind tunnel. She wore a black and white bodysuit with a cape harnessed to her. Two models in red and white ensembles entered and crossed the darkened stage while Fohlin crossed above, her embroidered white cape billowing behind her in the wind.
The final phase of the show comprised fourteen looks inspired by Japanese culture, including several with red and white palettes and some fur coats. The lights went back down and Ai Tominaga appeared in the walkway, clad only in a long, ornately embroidered white kimono worn over briefs and boots. A strong wind and fake snow roared through the tunnel, blowing the kimono back and exposing her naked chest as she struggled to cross. The audience applauded when she reached the end. The lights came back up and the models returned to the runway for their final turn, followed by McQueen all in white.
Scanners drew a mostly positive reception from contemporary critics. Authors differ in their assessment of the consensus. Andrew Wilson reported that the show was well-received, particularly the wind tunnel; while Katherine Gleason's book reported that reception was mixed. Women's Wear Daily reported that it was the 10th-most-viewed collection at Style.com that season, with 674,632 views in the first two weeks. Sales were reportedly good; a trunk show held at McQueen's New York location following the runway show garnered $1.2 million in orders. One corset-silhouetted coat trimmed with fur became a best-seller.
Reviewers noted the way McQueen played on contrasting ideas in various ways. Writing for The Independent, Susannah Frankel called it a "brilliant fusion" of opposing ideas like pop and punk, East versus West, and historicism and futurism. She felt the furs and brocades were romantic, while the checked prints and leathers were appropriate for "rock divas". Hilary Alexander of The Daily Telegraph noted contrasting silhouettes: severely tailored tops paired with soft, loose skirts, for example.
Many complimented the tailoring, McQueen's speciality. Sarah Mower did the same in her Vogue review, calling them "devilishly accurate", but argued that the best designs in the show were those that showed "McQueen's softer, more romantic side". Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune and Charlie Porter of The Guardian both thought McQueen was refining a distinct silhouette with the collection. Frankel felt that McQueen's imagination came through despite the conventional style of some items. Several of the design motifs were considered on-trend for the season by critics: the voluminous shapes, black and white prints, and luxury elements. Designs inspired by armour, as in Look 12, were also popular; Porter suggested this was an exploration of a long-standing trend for metallics.
The artistic quality of the designs stood out for reviewers. Frankel thought that McQueen had correctly balanced his artistic showpieces with more commercial designs suitable for retail sale. Writing separately, Menkes and Lisa Armstrong at The Times each wrote that he had successfully married his showmanship and imagination with the refinement demanded by haute couture. Rod Hagwood felt the clothes were as close to couture as was possible for a designer working in ready-to-wear. Alexander thought the collection was intended to demonstrate McQueen's availability for couture orders, citing Tominaga's kimono as an example. Hand-embroidered with an orgy scene from an erotic painting, it had taken fifteen people five weeks of work and was expected to sell for £150,000.
Most critics were impressed with the theatrical elements. More than one called them "jaw-dropping". Guy Trebay, in his fashion diary for The New York Times wrote that the narrative and concept had a "delightful absurdity". Mower thought the narrative was unintelligible, but felt the unique aesthetic it brought made it worthwhile. Others were pleased with the oversized showpieces from the wind tunnel, guessing that they were at least twenty feet long. Frankel called the use of an orgy scene as decoration for the final kimono a "quintessential McQueen" touch. Judith Watt likened Tominaga's appearance in the wind tunnel to the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
Some critics were more ambivalent. For The Sydney Morning Herald, Maggie Alderson thought the collection saw McQueen doing "his usual bit pushing the boundaries where drama meets misogyny", although she found it "superb" overall. Cathy Horyn of The New York Times liked the designs, but felt "the special effects overwhelmed the clothes". Similarly, Robin Givhan, in her Washington Post review, called the collection unmemorable compared to the finale. Karen Homer, writing in retrospect, compared it to the previous season's collection, Irere (Spring/Summer 2003), writing that both were commercially-focused collections that lacked McQueen's typical level of runway showmanship. The heavy use of fur was contentious. Porter called it the "one low point" of the show. Frankel criticised the use of fur as seeming "too easy a statement of status and wealth" compared to the more radical designs elsewhere in the collection.
Textile curators Clarissa M. Esguerra and Michaela Hansen identified a clinging bandage dress from the retail collection, which had zippers for side seams, as a reworking of similar styles by Azzedine Alaïa, a designer McQueen admired. They pointed to the tailoring in other items, such as the checked suit from Look 24, as evidence of McQueen's skill at cutting fabric. Each piece of the pattern is cut and arranged deliberately to create curves that flow along the body, creating an optical illusion that seems to sculpt the body.
Esguerra and Hansen felt that the way McQueen borrowed ideas from various cultures in Scanners, based on his own personal fixations, demonstrated that cultural appropriation can in some contexts be "specific and meaningful" while also being "incomplete or decorative". Anna Jackson argued that McQueen's incorporation of elements from Japanese clothing was more "transformative" than similar efforts by other designers, who treated these aesthetics as a novelty.
In an essay about McQueen's use of death symbolism, Eleanor Townsend cited the brain scan invitation from Scanners as an example of the designer's awareness of his own mortality.
McQueen explored complex black and white prints again in The Horn of Plenty (Fall/Winter 2009).
Look 33 was photographed for Vogue by Thomas Schenk. In 2014, Harper's Bazaar named Scanners one of McQueen's most memorable shows, citing the wind tunnel performances. Vogue interviewed several McQueen models for their February 2020 issue. Fohlin recalled her appearances in Scanners positively, saying that McQueen's "shows were always something more than a regular runway; as a model you had more space to perform."
Two items from Scanners appeared in the retrospective exhibit Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty: Look 3, a dress covered with metal sequins, and Look 21, a jute dress heavily embroidered with flowers. An essay book released for the 2015 revival of the exhibition includes sketches from Scanners. The 2022 exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse featured several items from Scanners, primarily from the retail collection, as well as Look 24, a checked suit. The checked suit was juxtaposed with a suit by 20th-century costume designer Gilbert Adrian, demonstrating their mutual mastery of advanced tailoring techniques.