The Dance of the Twisted Bull (Spring/Summer 2002; ) is the nineteenth collection by British designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. Twisted Bull was inspired by Spanish culture and art, especially the traditional clothing worn for flamenco dancing and bullfighting. In McQueen's typical fashion, the collection included sharp tailoring and historicist elements and emphasised femininity and sexuality.
The runway show for Twisted Bull was staged during Paris Fashion Week on 6 October 2001 at the headquarters of the . It was McQueen's first collection following his departure from Givenchy and the sale of his company to the Gucci Group in 2001. Compared to his previous seasons, which tended to be theatrical and artistic, the runway show was simple, and the clothing designs were unusually commercial. McQueen confirmed that this was a business decision intended to drive sales for his first season under Gucci. Sales for the collection were reportedly strong.
Reception for Twisted Bull was mostly positive, especially from British journalists, who highlighted the accessible designs and polished presentation. American journalists were less impressed, particularly with the dressmaking. The most noted look from the collection was a showpiece dress made to look as though its torso was pierced through by spears, which later appeared in both stagings of the retrospective exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. Other looks appeared in the 2022 retrospective exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse.
Background
British designer Alexander McQueen was known in the fashion industry for his imaginative, sometimes controversial designs. His collections were strongly historicist, referencing and reworking historical narratives and concepts. His fashion shows were theatrical to the point of verging on performance art. The runway shows for his last two collections before The Dance of the Twisted Bull had both been in this mode: Voss (Spring/Summer 2001) was staged as a voyeuristic look inside a stereotypical insane asylum, while the set dressing for What A Merry-Go-Round (Autumn/Winter 2001) included an actual carousel ride.
From 1996 to October 2001, McQueen was alsoin addition to his responsibilities for his own labelhead designer at French fashion house Givenchy. His time at Givenchy was fraught, primarily because of creative differences between him and the label, and the press speculated that he would leave his contract early. In 2000, before his contract with Givenchy had finished, McQueen signed a deal with Gucci, an Italian fashion house and rival to Givenchy, effectively daring Givenchy to fire him. Gucci bought 51 per cent of McQueen's company with McQueen remaining its creative director. Twisted Bull was McQueen's first collection for his own label under Gucci.
Concept and creative process
The Dance of the Twisted Bull (Spring/Summer 2002) is the nineteenth collection by British designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. It was inspired by Spanish culture and art, particularly the traditional clothing worn for flamenco dancing and bullfighting – traje de flamenca and traje de luces, respectively. The romantic, feminine collection incorporated ruffled and polka-dotted flamenco dresses, ornamented short jackets in the vein of the matador's traditional chaquetilla, and sharply tailored suits, the latter a McQueen staple. Some designs appeared to reference The Tailor's Pattern Book, a 1589 book of patterns by Spanish mathematician Juan de Alcega. Other historicist elements included corsets, which appeared integrated into garments and as outerwear. The collection's primary palette was red, black, and white. The darker colours of some ensembles referenced the moody work of Spanish painter Francisco Goya, and architectural elements referenced Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. Writing in 2012, fashion historian Judith Watt noted that the collection's highly-feminine styling was in line with trends for 2002, although she also found a significant influence from sportswear.