The Museum of Savage Beauty: 'Spine' corset

Savage Beauty research assistant Louise Rytter explains the cinematic inspiration behind the 'Spine' corset. ‘Spine’ corset. Untitled, Spring/Summer 1998, Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen http://www.vam.ac.uk/museumofsavagebeauty/ Transcript: McQueen was fascinated by the human anatomy and experimented with cloth and jewellery to transform the body and our perception of beauty. The ‘Spine’ corset was not originally intended to have a tail. However, McQueen asked Shaun Leane to make a tail after he had watched the horror film ‘The Omen’ by Richard Donner: here a jackal gives birth to a child. The ‘Spine’ corset armours the body and transforms the wearer into a hybrid creature, which is part human and part animal. It also shows how McQueen took direct inspiration from film and transformed it into a design or even a fashion show.