Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
“Bumster” Skirt
Highland Rape, autumn/winter 1995–96 (re-edition from original pattern)
Black silk taffeta
Courtesy of Alexander McQueen
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

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Andrew Bolton: One of his most iconic designs in this particular gallery is the “bumster.” And there’s a lot of mythology around the bumster—that he was inspired by the builder’s bum. In McQueen’s mind, it was an experiment in elongating the body. For McQueen, the most exciting part of anybody’s body, male or female, was the bottom of the spine. And the bumsters is really about showcasing that part of the body.

Mira Hyde: My name is Mira Hyde, and I was living in the East End in an area called Hoxton Square, and Lee had moved into my building. He found out that I was a male groomer—I did hair and makeup for men—and invited me to do his next show. And that was how I first met Lee.

I was given a lot of the bumsters because I was quite small and I could wear them. It made you feel taller, especially when you wore them with heels, because then all of a sudden, you just look incredibly long legged and very long torsoed.

The bumcrack . . . sometimes you could see a bit of it, and sometimes it was just above it, but normally you would see just a touch. It was like a bum cleavage, and depending where I went, I would expose it, or I would wear a long shirt, depending on where I was. But I always got commented on it, everywhere.

Andrew Bolton: The bumster trouser caused a sensation when it was launched in the early nineties. I think what’s interesting about McQueen is how he would harness the attitude in the street. He was very much about anarchy and about the anarchy of the British street, the anarchy of British music, and trying to, again, harness that into his clothes. And the bumster was one of the garments that, very early on, would make his reputation as this provocateur.

“[With 'bumsters'] I wanted to elongate the body, not just show the bum. To me, that part of the body—not so much the buttocks, but the bottom of the spine—that’s the most erotic part of anyone’s body, man or woman.”

The Guardian Weekend, July 6, 1996

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Dress
Highland Rape, autumn/winter 1995–96
Green and bronze cotton/synthetic lace
Courtesy of Alexander McQueen
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

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Trino Verkade: People then started to see him as an artist, because this was somebody who was talking through his shows and through his clothes on a very personal level about something that was really powerful and quite shocking to people. This was in 1995. This is a time when people were doing minimalism. And Lee just came along and just socked them right in the face with the . . . with this show.

This collection was the first time that he did the torn lace, which was to become a signature of his. And we’d buy the lace in Brick Lane, and we’d cut ’round each flower to give that very delicate, torn appearance, which . . . it became something of a look for him.

“[This collection] was a shout against English designers . . . doing flamboyant Scottish clothes. My father’s family originates from the Isle of Skye, and I’d studied the history of the Scottish upheavals and the Clearances. People were so unintelligent they thought this was about women being raped—yet Highland Rape was about England’s rape of Scotland.”

Time Out (London), September 24–October 1, 1997

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
Suit
Highland Rape, autumn/winter 1995–96 (jacket and skirt not worn together on the runway)
Jacket of McQueen wool tartan with green wool felt sleeves; skirt of McQueen wool tartan
From the collection of Isabella Blow courtesy of the Hon. Daphne Guinness
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

Read an article by Jonathan Faiers about McQueen and tartan.

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Andrew Bolton: The collection Highland Rape, which was in autumn/winter 1995 to 1996, is widely considered to be the collection that established McQueen’s reputation internationally. At the time, people thought the rape referenced the rape of women. But it was actually the rape of Scotland by England. The collection actually referenced the Jacobite risings of the eighteenth century and the Highland Clearances of the nineteenth century.

McQueen saw the Scottish heritage as rather bleak and rather brutal. In this particular collection, you can see that actually manifested in the clothes themselves by the slashing of the garments. There’s one particular dress, which is made out of green leather with a slash in the middle of the dress, just at the breasts. And we actually used that conceit as part of the construction of this gallery, where you’ll see a large gash created out of the wooden planks, which is a reference to McQueen’s punkish attitude and also the deconstructionism that you see in the dresses in this particular gallery.