Photo By Gail

Alexander McQueen once declared, “Birds in flight fascinate me.” One of his favorite films was Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller The Birds, which inspired his spring/summer 1995 collection, including this jacket. Made from orange wool twill, it features a swarm of swallows screen printed by Simon Ungless and Andrew Groves. Individual birds gradually materialize from the ominous black cloud of swallows at the exaggerated shoulders, swooping around the body of the jacket and increasing in size but decreasing number towards the hem.

Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as Part of the Exhibit Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.