Pantheon ad Lucem

British designer Alexander McQueen was known in the fashion industry for his imaginative, sometimes controversial designs, and fashion shows which were theatrical to the point of verging on performance art.^[1][2][3] Although he worked in ready-to-wear – clothing produced for retail sale – his runway showpieces featured a degree of craftsmanship that verged on haute couture.^[4][5] McQueen's personal fixations had a strong influence on his designs and shows, especially his love of film, which he drew on from the beginning of his career with his first commercial collection, Taxi Driver (Autumn/Winter 1993), named for the 1976 film by Martin Scorsese.^[6] He also had a lifelong fascination with space travel and aliens.^[7] Referring to the time- and space-travelling device from the science fiction show Doctor Who, he said: "If the TARDIS did exist, I'd be the first to buy one."^[7] His collections were often historicist, referencing and reworking historical narratives and concepts.^[8]

From 1996 to October 2001, McQueen was also – in addition to his responsibilities for his own label – head designer at French fashion house Givenchy.^[9][10][11] In 2000, McQueen sold 51 per cent of his company to the Gucci group, owned by French conglomerate PPR (now Kering), but retained creative control.^[12][13] During late 2003 and early 2004, McQueen was in tense negotiations with PPR management to replace the departing Tom Ford as creative director at Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), also owned by PPR. The negotiations broke down and McQueen did not take the job, publicly stating he wished to focus on his own label.^[14][15]

Sketch of women wearing clothing in the style of ancient Greece

Silk chiffon evening gown by Madeleine Vionnet, c.1932

White gown worn by Princess Leia in Star Wars

Pantheon ad Lucem^[a] (Autumn/Winter 2004) is the twenty-fourth collection by British designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. The entire title is often incorrectly translated as meaning "towards the light"; this is the correct translation for the Latin phrase "ad lucem", but neglects to account for the word "pantheon".^[16][17][18]

McQueen's goal for Pantheon ad Lucem was to remove "all theatrics and focus purely on design", in contrast to his usually-bombastic runway presentations.^[19][17] He also said that he "wanted to envision what fashion should be like in the 21st century".^[20] The collection took inspiration from the loosely draped style of Ancient Greek garments as well as the costume and design of science fiction films like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Star Wars (1977), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and Signs (2002).^[16][21][22] The palette was mostly neutral and the cuts were relatively simple.^[19] Journalist Sarah Mower interpreted the collection's restrained designs as evidence of the stress the YSL negotiations caused McQueen.^[15]

Much of the collection comprised ensembles in draped, wrapped, or tied jersey.^[23] Long column dresses evoked the 1930s work of French designer Madeleine Vionnet, who specialised in bias-cut dresses cut to loosely drape and wrap around the body; Vionnet was also inspired by the ancient Greeks.^[16][23][24] These items may also have been influenced by Tunisian designer Azzedine Alaïa.^[21] Contrasting the slimline items were heavier garments including tweed suits and fur coats.^[16] Looks 26 and 27 had embossed patterns that evoked the appearance of crop circles or the Nazca Lines.^{[b][16][26][15]}

McQueen was known for playing with the silhouette by cutting or structuring garments to produce unusual shapes. In Pantheon, he emphasised the hips to a degree that was uncommon for him, but also showed cinched waists and padded jackets.^[26] The final items in the collection had highly-structured boat necklines in an exaggerated width, coupled with reflective fabric or inset LED lights, giving the wearer an inhuman or alien quality.^[17][27][18] The conical silver dress in Look 51 bore a resemblance to the Apollo command module.^[28]

Despite its science-fiction roots, Pantheon contained references to historical clothing styles, as was typical for McQueen.^[8][16] The early phase of the collection included references to the 1930s fashion that influenced his previous collection, Deliverance (Spring/Summer 2004), including pussy bows, broadened shoulders, and slightly mismatched collars and hems.^[23] Looks 36 and 38, heavily beaded dresses with extreme cutouts, may have been referencing belly dancing outfits.^[29] McQueen referenced English medieval clothing in several of the eveningwear pieces.^[16] Garments with heavily-decorated yokes or long sleeves, such as those found in Looks 33 and 46 respectively, pointed back at the Plantagenet period of the late Middle Ages.^[16] Look 47 had similarities to the English medieval kirtle.^[26] Look 54 echoed the gaping neckline in a design with elements of Tudor period clothing.^[27]

McQueen often incorporated materials and visuals from the natural world into his shows. Look 34 was styled with a large collar made from real feathers and glass beads, a possible nod to Native American styles.^[26] Jaguar print and floral print appeared in Looks 37 and 39, and 48 and 49, respectively.^[15][26] The exaggerated floral prints, an unusual motif for McQueen, were derived from photographs of orchids by Peter Arnold.^[22] Reproducing the multicoloured photographs as prints on silk presented a technical challenge for McQueen's manufacturer and had to be redone several times, delaying the collection's production.^[22] McQueen called the orchid dresses "pivotal" to the collection's presentation.^[22]

Production details

The runway show was staged on 5 March 2004 at the Grande halle de la Villette, Paris.^[30] It was the final show of the day.^[21] Because of the production issues with the orchid prints, the collection was delayed and did not leave the production facility in Italy until nearly two days before the show.^[22] PPR president Francois-Henri Pinault, PPR chairman Serge Weinberg, and departing Gucci CEO Domenico De Sole were all in attendance.^[31] Other guests included designer Diane von Furstenberg, McQueen's friends Isabella Blow and Kate Moss, musician Grace Jones, and McQueen's mother.^[31][32]

The runway was a plain white circle, illuminated from below; author Andrew Wilson described it as an "alien landing pad".^[23][17][7] Models entered through a backlit door at the rear of the stage, suggesting the open door of an alien spaceship.^[16] The rings of ceiling lights, as well as pillars of light circling the stage in the finale, evoked the Roman Colosseum in the abstract.^[16][17] Alternately, they can be seen as "the base of a hovering starship".^[23] Joseph Bennett, who had designed all of McQueen's runways since No. 13 (Spring/Summer 1999), returned to handle set design.^[33]

The soundtrack was primarily electropop but incorporated tracks from science fiction films and television shows. The themes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Doctor Who appeared, as did a sample from the initial fanfare of the Richard Strauss composition Also sprach Zarathustra, famously used in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.^[34][16][7] The 1980 Kate Bush song "Babooshka" was also used.^[7]

Guido Palau styled hair, while Val Garland handled makeup; both were frequent McQueen collaborators.^[30] Models were styled to look androgynous and somewhat alien, with their faces powdered pale and eyes slanted artificially with invisible tape.^[16][18][32] They wore wigs with short, tightly curled hair, echoing hairstyles found on ancient Greek statuary.^[16][18][23]

McQueen's longtime collaborator Shaun Leane created accessories for the collection, most notably the silver "Orchid" shoulderpiece that accompanied the final look.^[18][35] According to Leane, McQueen requested a shoulderpiece with orchids made to look "quite alien ... not from this planet".^[18] Leane repeated the process he used to create a rose-adorned silver corset for McQueen's Spring/Summer 2000 Givenchy collection. He carved the shoulder section from clay and the flowers from wax. Both were cast in resin then electroplated with silver. The orchids were further oxidised so their colour contrasted with the shoulder portion.^[36]

Catwalk presentation

Fifty-five pieces were presented.^[c][23][15] A brief projection before the show presented scenes from outer space.^[23] The opening phase consisted of flesh-toned items in soft fabrics like jersey and cashmere, as well as garments in soft leather and tweed.^[23] With Look 20, the presentation shifted to earth tones. This phase included McQueen's first jumpsuits, Looks 24 and 31, in tweed.^[37][15] More projected images of space preceded the final phase.^[29] Beginning at Look 40, the last portion of the collection comprised eveningwear looks in dark satin, including the orchid-print dresses.^[26] The final three looks, all highly sculptural dresses, were presented in near-darkness, lit mainly by reflective fabric and LEDs inside the garments and jewellery.^[16][38][28]

For the show's finale, Estonian model Tiiu Kuik wore an evening gown in light grey tulle. The gown had an exaggerated hourglass silhouette: a flared A-line skirt, tightly cinched waist, and a V-shaped structured bodice that opened into a wide boat neckline.^[16][18] The look was styled with Shaun Leane's silver "Orchid" shoulderpiece.^[18][35] Kuik walked onto the darkened stage as concentric rings of light flashed on the floor and the sound of a heart monitor began playing.^[7] She stopped in the centre and held her arms out beseechingly while a spotlight illuminated her from the ceiling. The heart monitor sound gradually slowed into a flatline.^[18][7] Lights resembling pillars surrounded the stage. The spotlight gradually dimmed until Kuik was in darkness.^[39]

The lights came back up and the show's models came out to take their final turn.^[39] McQueen came out to take his bow in a white suit, barefoot. He shook hands with departing Gucci CEO Domenico De Sole, who had brought McQueen's label into the Gucci group and supported his work.^[22] McQueen later described his barefoot appearance as an indication of "how humbled I felt by what was happening".^[22]

According to Women's Wear Daily (WWD), Pantheon ad Lucem had the 12th-highest pageviews at Style.com for the season.^[40] McQueen told Harper's Bazaar in August 2004 "I don't know if the press liked the collection much", but said it was selling "phenomenally" at retail.^[22]

Sarah Mower of Vogue wrote that McQueen "seemed to be trying to summarize the essence of his design identity" with the pared-down designs, which went against a trend for "overcomplicated" designs.^[15] Although she appreciated a few items, she concluded that Pantheon lacked McQueen's signature theatricality and "didn't quite live up to expectations".^[15] For The New York Times, Cathy Horyn wrote that only McQueen and Miuccia Prada had made a "leap of faith" and created designs that looked ahead, rather than following contemporary trends. She directed viewers to look past the science fiction elements to the cut and the silhouette of the garments, saying "you won't find another like it in fashion".^[41] In a short review, Armand Limnander of The Australian called the clothing modernist and wrote: "When it comes to taking creative risks, McQueen is a visionary."^[20] Michael Fink, a market director for Saks Fifth Avenue, told WWD that he interpreted McQueen's "sci-fi fantasy" designs as part of a trend for designers to "search for what's modern".^[42] Stephen Todd of The Australian found there was "something disturbing" about the restrictive structure of some of the jackets and dresses. Although he appreciated the jersey gowns, he ultimately felt that he did not understand the collection.^[21]

McQueen's biographers tend to see Pantheon as one of McQueen's less significant works, devoting little analysis to it. Judith Watt, in her biography of McQueen, reports the collection as a disappointment to the audience, who had come to expect the designer to present them with "bread and circuses".^[23] However, she felt that the collection embodied "artful simplicity", writing that the draped bias-cut dresses demonstrated McQueen's understanding of how fabric worked with the body.^[23] Katherine Gleason, in her book Alexander McQueen: Evolution, found the collection "elegant and wearable".^[32] Andrew Wilson barely remarks on the clothing in his biography Blood Beneath the Skin.^[7] Journalist Dana Thomas omits the show entirely from her book Gods and Kings.^[43] In the Little Book of Alexander McQueen, Karen Homer wrote that McQueen had successfully created a collection which pared his designs down to "his signature styles", but had done so "at the cost of an impressive show".^[44]

Fashion journalist Alex Fury argued that Pantheon was an example of McQueen expressing his vision "through the bodies of his models" rather than through elaborate set dressing.^[17] Wilson felt that the final scene, in which Kuik seemed to await being taken by aliens to another dimension, "articulated McQueen's desire for transcendence".^[7]

Kristin Knox suggested that the exaggerated necklines from Looks 52 through 54 were visual precursors of the highly structured silhouettes he presented in The Girl Who Lived in the Tree (Autumn/Winter 2008) and The Horn of Plenty (Autumn/Winter 2009).^[27] She wrote that the collection marked "the evolution of his designs from fashions simply worn by models to designs integrated with their human carriers, becoming an organic part of them, like a second skin".^[27]

The showpiece finale gown appeared in a photoshoot in the December 2004 edition of Vogue, without the "Orchid" shoulderpiece. It was modelled by McQueen's friend Erin O'Connor and photographed by Tim Walker.^[45] The floor-length Greek-inspired column dress from Look 14 was popular in red carpet fashion that season.^[15][46] McQueen returned to Greek-inspired ensembles and the work of Azzedine Alaïa for Neptune (Spring/Summer 2006).^[47][48]

No clothing from Pantheon appeared in the 2011 retrospective Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, but two pieces of jewellery by Shaun Leane were selected for the exhibit's "Cabinet of Curiosities" section: the "Orchid" shoulderpiece worn in the final look, and a pair of disc earrings in copper.^[35] One dress and one pair of boots from Pantheon appeared in the 2022 exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse.^[49] Curators described it as an example of how McQueen's "proficiency in piecing translates into garments that generate sinuous movement around the body".^[50]

In 2017, McQueen's longtime collaborator Shaun Leane auctioned a number of pieces he had created for the house at Sotheby's in New York. The orchid shoulderpiece sold for $43,750.^[51]

• Alexander McQueen | Women's Spring/Summer 2004 | Runway Show. Alexander McQueen. 21 March 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2024 – via YouTube.
• Bolton, Andrew (2011). Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. New York City: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-1-58839-412-5. OCLC 687693871.
• Esguerra, Clarissa M.; Hansen, Michaela (2022). Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse. New York City: Delmonico Books. ISBN 978-1-63681-018-8. OCLC 1289986708.
• Fairer, Robert; Wilcox, Claire (2016). Alexander McQueen: Unseen. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-22267-8. OCLC 946216643.
• Fox, Chloe (2012). Vogue On: Alexander McQueen. Vogue on Designers. London: Quadrille Publishing. ISBN 978-1849491136. OCLC 828766756.
• Gleason, Katherine (2012). Alexander McQueen: Evolution. New York City: Race Point Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61058-837-9. OCLC 783147416.
• Homer, Karen (2023). Little Book of Alexander McQueen: The Story of the Iconic Brand. London: Welbeck Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-80279-270-6.
• Knox, Kristin (2010). Alexander McQueen: Genius of a Generation. London: A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-4081-3223-4. OCLC 794296806.
• Thomas, Dana (2015). Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. Penguin Publishing. ISBN 978-1-101-61795-3.
• Watt, Judith (2012). Alexander McQueen: The Life and the Legacy. New York City: Harper Design. ISBN 978-1-84796-085-6. OCLC 892706946.
• Wilcox, Claire, ed. (2015). Alexander McQueen. New York City: Abrams Books. ISBN 978-1-4197-1723-9. OCLC 891618596.
• Wilson, Andrew (2015). Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin. New York City: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4767-7674-3. OCLC 1310585849.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pantheon ad Lucem.

• Alexander McQueen | Women's Autumn/Winter 2004 | Runway Show on YouTube