Voss (Alexander McQueen collection)

Voss is the seventeenth collection by British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, made for the Spring/Summer 2001 season of his eponymous fashion house. The collection drew on imagery of madness and the natural world to explore ideas of bodily perfection, interrogating who and what was beautiful. Like many of McQueen's collections, Voss also served as a critique of the fashion industry, which McQueen was often ambivalent about. Voss featured a large number of showpiece designs, including dresses made with razor clam shells, an antique Japanese screen, taxidermied hawks, and microscope slides. The collection's palette mainly comprised muted tones; common design flourishes included faux-"Oriental" flourishes, surrealist elements, and ruffles.

The collection's runway show was staged on 26 September 2000 at the Gatliff Road Warehouse in London, as part of London Fashion Week. The show was staged inside a room-sized mirrored glass cube, with the audience seated outside. McQueen deliberately started the show an hour late, which forced the audience, comprised largely of industry professionals, to watch themselves uncomfortably in the mirror. When the show started, the cube became transparent to the audience, revealing a space designed to look like a padded room in a stereotypical mental asylum. The models were styled to look unhealthy, with hair covered by bandages. They were directed to act as though they were having a "nervous breakdown" while walking. Seventy-six looks were presented, followed by a finale in which a glass cube at the centre shattered to reveal Michelle Olley, fat, nude, and covered in moths.^[a]

Critical response was positive, especially towards the showpiece ensembles and the performance art aspect. The show is regarded as one of McQueen's best, and has attracted a large amount of academic analysis, particularly as pertaining to the collection's imagery of human-animal hybridisation and interrogation of beauty standards. Several models who walked in the show have discussed their experiences as challenging but positive. Ensembles from Voss are held by various museums and have appeared in exhibitions such as the McQueen retrospective Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.

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