The Horn of Plenty: Everything But the Kitchen Sink is the thirty-fourth collection by British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, released for the Autumn/Winter 2009 season of his eponymous fashion house. The collection combined the aesthetics of classic haute couture fashion with household rubbish to satirise the fashion industry for its wastefulness and lack of originality. The Horn of Plenty also featured reimagined designs and reworked items from McQueen's previous collections, serving as a retrospective of his own design history. Common design flourishes included houndstooth patterns, design elements overdone to ironic proportions, and prints based on the natural world. Production was shadowed by photographer Nick Waplington, who in 2013 published a photo book documenting the collection's creation.
Forty-five looks were presented at the collection's runway show, which was staged on 10 March 2009 at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris. The centrepiece of the set was a large pile of props from previous McQueen shows, painted black. The models were styled with exaggerated lipstick, headpieces made from everyday refuse like aluminium cans, and extreme platform heels based on historical styles. On the runway, they struck poses that called back to the stylised body language in silent films and mid-century fashion photography.
Contemporary critical response was mixed; some felt the styling of the collection was misogynistic, while others appreciated the showmanship and references to fashion history. The Horn of Plenty is better regarded by retrospective reviewers, and it is often cited as one of McQueen's most memorable collections. Academic analysis has focused on the underlying commentary and themes, particularly the ideas evoked by the pair of fully feathered dresses that closed the collection. Ensembles from The Horn of Plenty are held by various museums and have appeared in exhibitions such as the McQueen retrospective Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.
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, then launched his eponymous fashion house shortly after graduating with his master's degree in fashion design in 1992. From October 1996 to October 2001, McQueen wasin addition to his responsibilities for his own labelhead designer at French fashion house Givenchy, replacing John Galliano. McQueen and Galliano's careers overlapped, and they were frequently compared in the press because of their theatrical styles. McQueen, who had a competitive streak, resented the comparison and sought to outdo Galliano's ideas in his own work. His creative differences with Givenchy's management resulted in tension. In December 2000, McQueen sold 51 per cent of his company to Italian fashion house Gucci – a Givenchy competitor – retaining creative control.
McQueen described the fashion industry as toxic and suffocating, and was often ambivalent about continuing his work. The extreme styling in his first collections resulted in media accusations of misogyny; despite his objections, the label persisted through much of his career. By the mid-to-late 2000s, he had reached a point of exhaustion, at one point saying, "I go in, I do my business, do the parties, and leave." He told a friend he regretted signing his contract with Gucci, but feared putting his employees out of work if he stepped down from his brand.
As early as 1997, McQueen began creating collections that served as critiques of the industry. The runway shows for mid-career collections like Voss (Spring/Summer 2001) and What A Merry-Go-Round (Autumn/Winter 2001) used imagery associated with insane asylums and circuses to portray the fashion industry as chaotic and deranged. The program notes for Natural Dis-tinction Un-natural Selection (Spring/Summer 2009) explained that McQueen was concerned about human impact on the environment. By the time he staged The Horn of Plenty, McQueen was more disillusioned with fashion than ever, particularly in light of the 2007–2008 financial crisis that had devastated the global economy. He was critical of the way the rapid turnover of the fashion cycle relied on consumerism and over-consumption to turn a profit, creating unnecessary waste and exhausting designers.
Birds, wings, and feathers were a recurring theme in McQueen's work. His fifth collection, The Birds (Spring/Summer 1995), was inspired by ornithology, the study of birds, and named for the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds. Several garments from this collection were printed with silhouettes of swallows in flight. The stage of his thirty-first collection, La Dame Bleue (Spring/Summer 2008), was illuminated by giant blue neon wings. Other collections with heavy avian elements included Voss, Irere (Spring/Summer 2003), and The Widows of Culloden (Autumn/Winter 2006).
Concept and collection
Inspiration
The Horn of Plenty: Everything But the Kitchen Sink (Autumn/Winter 2009), generally referred to as The Horn of Plenty, is the thirty-fourth collection McQueen made for his eponymous fashion house. It was conceived as a dark satire of the fashion industry with pastiches of notable designers and McQueen's past works. He felt the industry was reliant on reusing old ideas rather than coming up with new concepts, and would be even more risk-averse during a recession. McQueen felt sales would be poor regardless as a result of the declining economy, so he intended to attract attention by rejecting the safe approach and making a statement. He jokingly described the collection to journalist Susannah Frankel as "a sackable offense".
McQueen's concerns about wastefulness and consumerism were expressed in designs that appeared to be made of rubbish, such as coats that looked like bin bags or bubble wrap. These items, reflecting the ironic sensibility of the collection, were actually made from expensive specialist materials such as paper nylon and lacquered silk. Visual inspiration for the rubbish-as-couture aesthetic was a 2007 portrait by Hendrik Kerstens. It features the artist's daughter wearing a white plastic bag as a wimple, referencing the work of 17th century painter Johannes Vermeer. The inclusion of designs resembling rubbish may also have been referencing the so-called "hobo couture" collection by John Galliano for Dior. Presented in Spring/Summer 2000, Galliano's collection featured clothing made from rubbish like old newspapers and models styled to look homeless, resulting in significant controversy.
Inspiration from other designers was wide-ranging. McQueen drew extensively on the fashion of the 1950s for the collection, particularly the hourglass silhouette popular at the time. He made visual allusions to the New Look created by designer Christian Dior, the tweed suits that Coco Chanel was known for, and the little black dress popularised by Hubert de Givenchy. There were possible references to later designers as well: the wrap dresses of Yves Saint Laurent, the unusual silhouettes of Cristóbal Balenciaga, a knitted dress with embellishments that suggested the medusa logo of Versace, and a 1990s dress from Comme des Garçons.
McQueen, 39 years old when the collection was conceived, viewed The Horn of Plenty as the last he would make as a young man, and sought to create a retrospective of his career to that point. Accordingly, many details, including the set decoration and soundtrack, referred back to previous collections. The title was taken from the name of a pub associated with the final victim of Jack the Ripper, calling back to McQueen's thesis collection, Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims (1992). Many designs were revisions of earlier ideas, while other items, like a chainmail yashmak, were archival pieces taken from previous collections, often heavily restructured. Archival bottoms were reworked into tops, trousers into sleeves, and dresses into coats. A hat from one of McQueen's Givenchy shows was reconstructed in reverse.
A cinemaphile, McQueen was known for drawing on his favourite films for inspiration. He told Women's Wear Daily he was referencing the documentary films Paris Is Burning (1990) and The Cockettes (2002), which concern ball culture and avant-garde theatre, respectively.
Collection
The palette was mainly black and white, with strong accents of bright red and orange. Primary silhouettes included McQueen staples like tailored coats, slim waists, and large shoulders, as well as boxy jackets, a shape he rarely used; conversely, he avoided his usual corset-based designs. Design elements like bustles and ruffles were overdone to the point of parody. The collection prominently featured patterns, including harlequin diamonds, houndstooth, and Prince of Wales check. The harlequin diamonds called back to the circus theme of What a Merry-Go-Round. The use of houndstooth, a reference to Dior's New Look, was especially exaggerated – some ensembles had multiple items in different sizes of the pattern. Look 6 had a fur coat rendered in a large houndstooth.
The collection heavily referenced the natural world with animal prints and real furs. The use of red and orange against black was a reference to animals with warning colours. There was a strong emphasis on avian elements, including feather prints, a birdcage hat, and garments made in whole or in part from feathers. A print of swallows that had appeared on several garments from The Birds was reworked for The Horn of Plenty. The new version featured a houndstooth pattern that, through tessellation, transformed into magpies, referencing the mathematically inspired art of Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher just as the original collection had.
Accessories were made from repurposed everyday items, or were made to look like them. Miliner Philip Treacy made hats from lampshades and umbrellas, among other things. Hairstylist Guido Palau made headpieces from aluminium cans sprayed black and wrapped in plastic. McQueen had experimented with extreme footwear for previous collections. Three seasons prior, his collection La Dame Bleue had included high platform shoes inspired by the Japanese geta and the Venetian chopine of the 15th century. He brought these ideas into The Horn of Plenty, which featured platform boots in houndstooth and red geta-style heels with a thin strap like a Mary Jane shoe. Georgina Goodman was responsible for shoe design for The Horn of Plenty.
Production and photo book
In 2008, McQueen asked his friend Nick Waplington, a photographer, if he would be interested in collaborating on a photo book documenting the creation of The Horn of Plenty from beginning to end. Although he was interested, Waplington was living and working in Jerusalem and wanted to put off McQueen's project for several years while he finished his work there. McQueen insisted that it had to be that collection at that time. Waplington realised that McQueen saw the collection as a unique turning point for his career, and agreed to take on the project. McQueen also asked his journalist friend Susannah Frankel to participate. McQueen was generally private to the point of deliberate obtuseness; both Frankel and Waplington considered the project an opportunity to glean an unusual amount of insight into his mind and creative process.