The purpose of this essay is to discuss how Alexander McQueen in Eclect Dissect and Ann Demeulemeester in her Fall 2012 collection encounters gender roles using the aesthetic of terror. Looking at the differences and the similarities in how the two designers’ represent terror in their design aesthetics leads to a comparative discussion in their approach regarding the recurring theme of terror. McQueen indicates a feel of unearthliness or supernatural while Ann Demeulemeester makes use of domains such as predatory animals indicating the dominance and mastery men exercise to empower woman. In order to make this argument I use Evan’s (2004) theory on the concept of terror from her article “Alexander McQueen: At War With The Obvious” as a framework…show more content… For Eclect Dissect, McQueen’s art director, Simon Costin, imagined a fin-de-siecle surgeon and collector who traveled the world collecting exotic items, textiles and women, which he took apart and reconstructed in his laboratory. McQueen’s reconstruction signifies the return of the “gruesomely murdered women who came back”, not as victims of cruelty and violence, but as vengeful ghosts “to haunt the living” (Evans, 2004: 8). The models represented their ghosts and dressed in the exotic costumes their murderer collected on his foreign trips. In McQueen’s work “Feminine beauty is negotiated in terms of aggression and brutality, assigning each women the ability to wound and attack” (Quinn, 2002:1). The similarity between the designer and surgeon was obvious. McQueen’s reconstruction did not make the women look like victims but vengeful ghosts and as such the “victimized model gave way to a more powerful image, as prey became predator” (Evans, 2004:…show more content… Suits made of bias-cut has a strict linear quality and funnel-necked jackets and pencil skirts provided a fierce silhouette. Hair, spiked and charged with raven’s-wing feathers, gave the look of a Navajo warrior (style.com, 2012). The boots worn by the woman can be seen as combat boots made feminine to suit te dominating attitudes relating to terror. Materials were sliced on the bias, revealing slithers of bare skin, and as such the materials added to the idea of Navajo warriors. Hamish Bowles states that the rawness of rough-grated suede or leather were constructed to resemble elephant skin (vogue, 2012). There was a definite animalistic feel to the collection, with furs, feathers and elephant skin constructed leather layered on the models. One could say that the feather spiked hair can be seen as animal ‘horns’ or a sword used for protection against dangerous