SexViolHist Bib: Representations: Fashion: Highland Rape

»Highland Rape is the sixth collection by British designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. Like many of McQueen's early collections, this collection featured untraditional women's tailoring heightening the models' figures and sexuality. Although very poorly received critically and publicly, the Highland Rape is one of McQueen's most famous shows that solidified his name in the fashion world. The runway show was presented on 13 March 1995 during London Fashion Week as his 1995 Autumn/Winter collection. The collection was dark and nationalistic, most notably epitomising the McQueen house's use of Scottish tartan and the bumster trouser, designed to show as much of the torso as possible without showing all of the crotch or bum. (...)
The public reception of Highland Rape has almost always been negative, both at the time of release and many decades later. While many praised him for it, many also attribute this show to sparking the longterm critiquing and labelling of McQueen being a misogynist. He forever denied this claim and took to defending Highland Rape, saying that the title of the show did not refer to the rape of women but rather "England's rape of Scotland".« (Extract from: Wikipedia)

K e y w o r d s

I. Chronological Index: Modern History: 20^th Century

II. Geographical Index: European History: English History, Scottish History

III. Topical Index: Types: General: Rape | Society: Rape Culture: Metaphors

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Bisevac, Andjela. »From Tartan to Turmoil: Sensory Engagement and Historical Narratives in Alexander McQueen’s “Highland Rape”.« dObra[s] No. 44 (2025): 106-120.

[Info] Elenowitz-Hess, Caroline. »Reckoning with Highland Rape: Sexuality, Violence, and Power on the Runway.« Fashion Theory (November 20, 2020).

II. Speaker Index

[Info] Elenowitz-Hess, Caroline. »Reckoning with Highland Rape: Sexuality, Violence and Power on the Runway.« 50^th Annual Meeting of the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association. Philadelphia 2020.