The Museum of Savage Beauty: The Armadillo Boot

Savage Beauty curator Claire Wilcox tells the story behind one Alexander McQueen's most famous creations Armadillo boot. Plato’s Atlantis, Spring/Summer 2010 http://www.vam.ac.uk/museumofsavagebeauty/ Transcript: The ‘Armadillo’ shoes are one of the most iconic pieces of design that McQueen ever created but they have to be seen in the context of the wider collection, which was Plato’s Atlantis, his last fully realised collection. The new silhouette that he created was really spectacular. An alien form emerges onto the catwalk with the most extraordinarily beautiful outfit, back-combed hair, but walking on these towering ‘Armadillo’ shoes, which – it’s quite difficult to create entirely new shoe forms but McQueen has really done it here. The form of the ‘Armadillo’ shoe was constructed in a reasonably conventional way although it looks very unconventional. The base was carved from wood and then the upper took the form of a high heeled shoe, which the model’s foot slipped in to. And then it was secured with two zips on the inner lining and then two zips with the outer body of the shoe, and then in some cases there was an additional ankle cuff.