The Overlook

Here, McQueen skillfully used curved seams and quilting to create a down-filled coat that recalls an iconic work by another master of twentieth-century pattern cutting, Charles James. His 1937 eiderdown and satin jacket, photographed for Harper’s Bazaar in October 1938, is a notable precursor to other high-end “puffer” styles that have been fashionable ever since. McQueen showed this insulating silhouette on the snow-globe-inspired runway of his Fall/Winter 1999–2000 collection, The Overlook, whose chilling namesake was the Colorado hotel setting of director Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining.

Evening jacket of quilted white satin
designed by Charles James, Paris, 1937
photo in Harper’s Bazaar October 1938
© George Hoyningen-Huene Estate Archives