A rare Julien MacDonald for Alexander McQueen knitted dress, show-piece from the ’Banshee’ collection, Autumn-Winter, 1994, un-labelled, with transparent band of loosely knitted plastic threads to bust, intentionally exposing the breasts when worn, knitted bands of red chenille to the long sleeves, bust approx 76-92cm, 30-36in
Provenance: the vendor previously worked with Julien MacDonald, who has confirmed that he created the knitwear for McQueen’s ’Banshee ’collection, whilst still a student at The Royal College of Art. This is the original dress worn on the catwalk. Around the time of this show, MacDonald was also commissioned to create knitwear for Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld - remarkable achievements for someone who had still to graduate from college. For the Autumn-Winter 1994 collection McQueen took inspiration from a Celtic mythical being - the Banshee - who ’would be seen washing the blood from clothes of men about to die’ (Judith Watt, ’Alexander McQueen: Fashion Visionary’, p.45).
The dress appears in the film ’McQueen’ (2018).