Though the rise of virtual events during the pandemic did sort of further signal that physical Fashion Weeks may be marching towards eventual obsolescence, we did really miss them when they were shut down during that time. And it wasn’t just the shiver of anticipation as a new collection is ready to make its way down a runway – it was also the sometimes cheeky conceptualization of the more provocative wing of the fashion biz.
Of course, we have long been able to rely on Alexander McQueen to raise a few eyebrows and provoke a few thoughts. And for Autumn/Winter 2022 Creative Director Sarah Burton looked to the not-so-humble fungus for inspiration. To be sure, the collection is titled Mycelium, which Merriam-Webster defines as “the mass of interwoven filamentous hyphae that forms especially the vegetative portion of the thallus of a fungus and is often submerged in another body (as of soil or organic matter or the tissues of a host).”
This would at first consideration likely not be the basis of anything one was planning to wear, especially with the Alexander McQueen label on it. But Burton explains it as being about community, that fashion in a way binds and holds us together. “Mycelium has the most profound, interconnecting power,” she enthuses, “relaying messages through a magical underground structure, allowing trees to reach out to each other when either they or their young need help or are sick.”
Profound indeed, as the global community has spent the last twenty-four months being bound by a common threat to our essential health. But the theme was fully committed to for the runway show – staged in a Brooklyn warehouse – with piles of mulch as a scenic element, and the sounds of birds and insects being piped in. The Cure’s haunting classic ‘A Forest’ then kicked in as the soundtrack, with Robert Smith eerily intoning, “Come closer and see / See into the dark / Just follow your eyes.”
Yet Burton genuinely wishes it to convey a message that is hopeful, at a time when hope is perhaps our most important asset.
“We exist as single, individual entities on one level,” she observes, “but we are far more powerful connected to each other, to our families, to our friends, to our community. Given everything that has happened over the past two years, that seems more important than ever. As a community we are infinitely more able to restore, reinvent, rejuvenate – heal.”
Let the fungus be a lesson.
