Official invitation for the Alexander McQueen fashion show, ‘The Birds,' staged inside London's Bagley’s Warehouse on September 10, 1994, as part of the designer’s Spring/Summer 1995 collection. The upper portion of the invitation, 8.25″ x 11.75″, shows a blurred image of a dead chick in profile, with a credit list running down the right side. Upper left features ballpoint notations in an unknown hand. In fine condition, with central vertical and horizontal folds. McQueen’s S/S 1995 collection, ‘The Birds,’ was the first to feature the avian motif that would soon become a signature of McQueen’s aesthetic, and the highly restrictive, pencil silhouette that characterized the show was inspired by actress Tippi Hedren’s wardrobe in the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name. Additionally, as he informed the press, the theme of roadkill provided another inspiration for the collection and its staging; designer Simon Costin painted the catwalk to look like a road, and tire-tread prints were controversially marked on the models’ bodies and faces. From The Alexander McQueen Archive of Ruti Danan. Learn more about Alexander McQueen.
