Mycelium: Unpacking The Metaphorical Meaning of Alexander McQueen’s AW22 Collection
Sarah Burton looks to a multi-cellular muse for Alexander McQueen AW22
Where would Sarah Burton take us for Alexander McQueen AW22 after the transcendental joy of Spring’s London Skies? To the earthy, peaty underground of New York’s Mycelium. It was the third outing for the brand in the city, having previously shown in 1996 with Dante and again in 1999 for Eye. “I am so happy to be back in New York, a city that has always been close to our hearts,” Burton exclaimed in the show notes. “It is part of our community, a place that has always welcomed us, and this season I want to honour that. So, this collection is inspired by that idea of community, and specifically by mycelium, by the reality of nature as a community that is far, far older than we are.”
That sense of community provided a tangible thread of continuity throughout the collection. “Mycelium connects even the rooftop of the tallest skyscraper to the plants, to the grass, to the ground, to animals and to human beings,” said Burton. “Mycelium has the most profound, interconnecting power, 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. The idea is humbling – beautiful – and, of course, a metaphor for interconnection and for community between people, between us all.”
Imbued with philosophical meaning, the collection served as a palpable reminder of the conscious choices we made during the pandemic – for greener, more breathable cities – that already seem to be evaporating like smoke. Nature was at the forefront here, with giant piles of woodchip stacked up like crouching giants in Brooklyn’s Agger Fish Building emitting an earthy odour against a soundscape of insects and birds. The show was timed to coincide with the dying embers of sunlight, pervading the space with a brooding, atmospheric quality. Models arrived to the heady sounds of A Forest by The Cure; a track that captures the duality at the heart of the underground fungal network – at once healing and toxic; life giving and deadly.
The theme found its way into engineered spore-printed pieces, which interrupted a double-breasted tailored jacket in bright red cady with spottings of ivory and black. Elsewhere, a punkish, trippy aesthetic was captured in an oversized shredded jumper with mushroom intarsia and Harness pumps with psychedelic mushroom and sequin mycelium embroidery. A narrative of black was interspersed by luminous shades – a dress with an exploded ruffle neckline in orange beetled poly faille; a mohair jumper with acid green embroidery; a corset dress with an asymmetric drape skirt in black fishnet with multi-colour psychedelic mushroom and mycelium embroidery; a deconstructed dress in black beetled poly faille with a bright yellow engineered mushroom print.
There was masculinity and femininity, hardness and sensuality, pliancy and stiffness. Burton’s Mycelium spread like a network of threadlike tubes, branching out into a plethora of diverse styles that felt as multi-cellular as their muse. Romanticised leather in a twisted biker jacket with an open neckline, met inventive tailoring in a slashed single-breasted tailored jacket in black wool mohair, and suits adorned in graffiti-like prints created from photos of a person moving. A diverse model cast reflected perfectly the continuing appeal of a brand that is both beautiful and highly wearable and was suggestive of the McQueen community at large.
“We exist as single, individual entities on one level, but we are far more powerful connected to each other, to our families, to our friends, to our community,” said Burton. “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.” If London Skies marked a celebratory return to the runway and a reawakening after the pandemic, then Mycelium was a potent reminder of life itself; and of the ties that bind and unite us.