New York City, a location otherwise known as the “concrete jungle,” received an alt-Brit twist thanks to Simone Ashley. The actor, out promoting her new film Picture This yesterday, wore a vintage number from the late Alexander McQueen’s landmark and aptly titled fall 1997 show, “It’s a Jungle Out There.”
Ashley’s white tank top was barely visible from underneath her archival fur coat. Her jacket (actually from the designer’s fall 1996 show, per her stylist) featured exaggerated sleeves and layers of multi-color shag. Although this particular McQueen collection was full of dark leathers and various furs, Ashley chose one of the few denim pieces that made it down the 1997 runway to pair with her coat. She wore a knee-length jean skirt with an animal hide detail placed along the top. Ashely and her stylist Rebecca Corbin Murray sourced the outfit from West Archive in London.
This specific collection was an important one for McQueen. It was his first time showing under his eponymous label after his debut as the creative director of Givenchy (he replaced John Galliano, who went to Dior, at the French brand in 1996). McQueen’s Givenchy debut received largely negative reviews from critics, but that didn’t stop the designer from doubling down on his signature feral aesthetic for his namesake label’s fall 1997 show. In the context of Ashley’s press tour, however, McQueen’s divisive pieces functioned quite nicely.
The tattered animal hides placed over skirts and suits trimmed with human hair that McQueen sent down the London runway (on models with gazelle-esque eye makeup) referenced his experience with the press following his Givenchy debut. He went as far as to fill his mood boards with images of gazelles being torn apart by lions, according to set designer Simon Costin. Lion roars were even used in the show’s soundtrack.
“We all can be discarded quite easily and, nothing depicts it more honestly than the way animals are,” McQueen said following his fall show. “And, I was trying also say the fragility of a designer’s time in the press, you’re there, you’re gone; It’s a jungle out there!”
