Dante 1996

dante

The collection itself made a powerful statement on war, religion and brutality. Dante was the show that bolstered McQueen’s career and catapulted him to international acclaim.

SETTING

Anticipation was sky-high, journalists crowded the entrance of a dilapidated East London church to see Dante FW96 collection. Inside, they were greeted by an eerie, candlelit set and one front-row guest already seated: a model skeleton.

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The Show

Blasphemy reigned supreme on the runway, models stomping through the church, oozing a kind of destructive sex appeal. They licked their fingers seductively and toyed with the crowd, throwing in gestures that would make any vicar blush.

The Impact

Ostensibly named after Dante, the fourteenth-century Florentine poet, who presented in his Divine Comedy an allegorical vision of the afterlife, the collection was a commentary on religion, war and innocence.

Dante came at a time when the work of many designers was so derivative, it was almost akin to necrophilia. McQueen’s Dante treaded the fine line between performance art and fashion spectacular, but essentially conveyed both.

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Dante was presented twice, the second show staged in a disused synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side.

These weren’t just clothes, they were additions to a growing portfolio designed to put his business on the map. The show marks a turning point for the designer. Lashings of lace and brocade were sprinkled throughout the collection, building on his design DNA and forming a series of house codes.

Longread was created during the course ’Composition in design’
Designer Kate Klimanova

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DANTE COLLECTION

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