"Armadillo" Shoes

Design House Alexander McQueen British
Designer Alexander McQueen British
spring/summer 2010
Not on view
The "Armadillo" boots of were part of Alexander McQueen’s spring/summer 2010 Plato’s Atlantis collection – the last fully-realized collection McQueen presented before his death in February 2010. For the show, inspired by Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859), McQueen imagined humankind evolving to survive underwater and presented a fantastical posthuman hybrid aquatic creature with a bold and visionary statement: "There is no way back for me now. I am going to take you on journeys you never dreamed were possible.” The unusual shape of the "Armadillo" boots represent a claw-like extension of the leg and its execution in turquoise shagreen seems to reflect the light like the water above a coral reef, evoking one of the earth's most precious and threatened habitats.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: "Armadillo" Shoes
  • Design House: Alexander McQueen (British, founded 1992)
  • Designer: Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010)
  • Date: spring/summer 2010
  • Culture: British
  • Medium: shagreen (pastinachus sephen)
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, 2019
  • Object Number: 2019.255a, b
  • Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

More Artwork

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.