McQueen of the jungle prints and towering heels

Laura Craik
7 Oct 2009

God bless McQueen: he can always be relied upon to up the ante - with what must be the highest heels ever seen on a catwalk.

You think this season's heels are high? You ain't seen nothing yet.

Alexander McQueen's 12-inch elevations seem to have beaten even Vivienne Westwood's with towering snakeskin booties which looked less like shoes and more like cloven hooves.

In a Paris fashion week that has been polarised between the try-hards and the lazy, McQueen proved himself as being firmly in the former camp, with a collection that surpassed his own high standards of showmanship.

The first adjective that springs to mind is "modern".

This was a thoroughly forward-thinking collection, the fabrics and the execution excitingly new. It was also streamed live on the internet.

Was it a happy accident that they looked like pterodactyls, all jutting angles and predatory shapes? That they conjured robotic dinosaurs seemed perfectly to echo the show's theme.

Inspired by Charles Darwin's The Origin Of Species, the collection set out to represent the evolution of humanity, turning the tale on its head so that the models started as earth-dwellers and ended up as creatures of the sea.

And if that sounds pretentious - well, it was: but this didn't detract from the quality or vaunting imagination of the clothes.

It also made a pleasing change from being told that the designer's influences were Jeff Koons, the Seventies or a recent holiday in Morocco.

Shapes were typically McQueen: short, onion-shaped skirts, balloon sleeves and tight bodices.

The prints were exceptional, each one individually echoing the form of the dress.

Some were overlaid with gold coins that looked like buried treasure; others with jade and turquoise stones like mermaid scales.

Colours were aquatic - sea green, kingfisher blue and off-white, while the whole collection undulated like moving water.

The leathers, jerseys and neoprene gave way to lighter fabrics, as if to convey the models' readiness to live underwater.

Dresses spiral cut from curlicues of pale blue chiffon barely skimmed the body, while gauzy dresses were decorated with sequins and beads.

The finale piece, a tunic and matching leggings made of gold beads, was a fitting ending to a mesmerising show.