Show report: Alexander McQueen A/W'12

The installation of hundreds of white miniature bulbs dangling amidst light tubes that greeted guests as they arrived at the Salle Wagram gave some indication...

The installation of hundreds of white miniature bulbs dangling amidst light tubes that greeted guests as they arrived at the Salle Wagram gave some indication that Sarah Burton was in futuristic – even space age – mood this season.

Although trying to fathom any starting points for her exquisitely beautiful and other-worldly show is, in a way, futile because Burton is clearly in a super league all her own. As guests left the show most had a look of awed wonder on their faces at the fashion spectacular they had just seen.

She opened with a series of elaborate coat dresses in dense wools, framed by vast fur capes or Mongolian fur collars and cinched with sculptural silver belts that occasionally blossomed into giant metallic flowers.

Models, who all wore swept back platinum blonde wigs and silver visors which covered half of their faces, looked like inter-galactic goddesses stomping along in their furry knee-high (and heel-less) boots. From there Burton cut similar shapes – all short with a focus on the waist in palest pink silk, heavy white lace or black laser cut ponyskin with black fur pom poms before launching her extreme volumes. Super shaggy fur coats which mixed fur and feathers came in pale grey, palest pink and black.

Colour hit the catwalk with an intense rose fuchsia in dresses that combined dense flower sequins, sumptuous brocade and bouncing feathers – in a season of intense pink this was an extremist version and the effect was mesmerising.

A series of flower dresses, evermore voluminous, finished the show – incredible structures in pale pink, grey and lilac that were constructed from a vast millefeuille of organza. It was, in a word, breath-taking.

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