Invitation for Alexander McQueen's celebrated fashion show, ‘Voss,’ presented at London's Gatliff Road Warehouse on September 26, 2000, as part of the designer’s Spring/Summer 2001 collection. The invitation, with a red center panel measuring 11.75″ x 8.25″, unfolds into a 23.25″ x 16.5″ poster that depicts the inner hall of a sanitarium, with open doors to three sun-splashed rooms; the center panel simply lists in white text the event, venue, press, and buyer information. On the opposite side, the invitation is issued to “Alice Smith” for seat “An6,” and features an affixed yellow sticker. In fine condition, with expected folds and some light creasing.
McQueen’s unique vision of beauty once again took shape with ‘Voss,’ a multi-themed showcase that took its name from a Norwegian town renowned as a wildlife habitat. Clad in glass and feather and shell, models appeared within an enormous clinical glass box designed to resemble a padded cell in a psychiatric hospital. The finale, deemed one of McQueen’s most transgressive, recreated Joel-Peter Witkin’s 1983 photo ‘Sanitarium’ by revealing the naked figure of fetish writer Michelle Olley, surrounded by moths and reclining on a chaise longue, her masked head bowed and attached to a breathing tube. Provenance: from the Alexander McQueen Collection of Alice Smith, his first publicist, longtime friend, and muse.
