>> Raquel Zimmermann, who has been missing from the runways all season, finally made an appearance at Alexander McQueen — projected on a screen behind the runway, topless, with a snake writhing around her; she later morphed into an arm-waving sea creature. Two cameras, each mounted on a robotic arm that glided back and forth on the runway, moved over the audience, replacing the video of Raquel on the screen and signaling the start of the show, titled "Plato's Atlantis."
Stiffly sculptural minidresses started out in mirrored snakeprints, moving into owl and insect territory, and finally the aquatic. Hair, which began in cornrows with crimped tufts, ended in two gravity-defying horns, and the hologram catwalk operated on motion-control technology. Some of the white-faced models had prosthetics around their eyes, giving them alien-like bone structure, which took three hours to apply. And if the Fall 2009 Nina Ricci shoes needed an editorial replacement, McQueen has it for Spring 2010 — hoof-like platform booties that Imogen Morris-Clarke says were ten inches high.
The collection, embellished and couture-like as it was, will be reinterpreted to be more wearable for retail, but if the livestream — which couldn't handle all the people who tried to tune in — is any indication (full video can now be seen here), people do love their McQueen spectacles.
Cathy Horyn on Phoebe Philo's 