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There was a buzz about the McQueen show…literally. From the loud drone emanating from John Maybury’s delightfully twisted film of swarming bees that played at the end of the honeycomb runway, we knew we were in for a treat. “Theres always a nature reference” said Sarah Burton backstage, and this season it was bees. From the cylindrical bee-keeper hats, the wasp-waist corseted jackets, the gold-on-black honeycomb-patterned jacquard jackets, the cagelike pannier dresses, and the hard toffee-like tortoiseshell-resin harnesses, these were ultra sensual feminine clothes with the heightened anticipation of a painful bee sting. Things reached a saccharine crescendo as the strict hourglass silhouette morphed perfectly into a series of extravagantly tiered, corseted, caged and full-skirted gowns which came smothered with poppies and flowers. Light enough to skip through a meadow, these graceful beekeepers never became inhibited or overwhelmed by their crinoline structures. To close, The Archies ‘Sugar, Sugar’ joyfully played out, a perfectly pitched ending to a rapturous highlight of Paris Fashion Week.
Text: Caroline Newell
Photography: Mitchell Sams
See all of our SS13 womenswear coverage here.
