The Hunger (Alexander McQueen collection)

The Hunger (Spring/Summer 1996) is the seventh collection by British designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. The collection was primarily inspired by The Hunger, a 1983 erotic horror film about vampires. McQueen had limited financial backing, so the collection was created on a minimal budget. Typically for McQueen in the early stages of his career, the collection centred around sharply tailored garments and emphasised female sexuality. It was his first collection to include menswear.

The runway show for The Hunger was staged at London's Natural History Museum on 23 October 1995, during London Fashion Week. Like McQueen's previous professional shows, The Hunger was styled with imagery of sexuality, violence, and death, most prominently a corset of translucent plastic with real worms encased within. Models bared their breasts and flashed obscene gestures on the runway, and the show concluded with McQueen mooning the audience.

Critical reception to The Hunger was mixed. Some reviewers found it a highlight of a dull season, and while others denigrated McQueen's perceived immaturity as a designer. Some repeated accusations that McQueen's work was misogynist. Retrospective analysis has focused on the cinematic inspiration behind the collection and the gothic imagery of the worm corset. Many of the people who worked on The Hunger with McQueen would go on to become longtime collaborators. Garments from The Hunger appeared in both stagings of the retrospective exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.

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