The best fashion shows set in the snow

A snow-covered landscape is one of the most striking images in nature, an inspiration not only for painters who have depicted hundreds of them over the years but also for designers. On the one hand, the winter season presents a challenge that those who design clothes inevitably have to deal with, namely the cold, and on the other hand, because the poetry of a panorama bathed in complete white appeals to every creature, including designers. Over the years, the inspiration went far beyond the garments. The ship has been one of the key elements of some of the most impressive fashion show scenarios, from McQueen's Overlook show to Demna's political metaphor for Balenciaga.

Alexander McQueen FW 99

A snowball to be shaken to amaze children with a miniature of an Alpine landscape: that seems to be the most obvious idea behind Alexander McQueen's Overlook show in autumn 1999. Instead, as usual, the source of inspiration for the collection, presented in a glass case at London's Gatliff Road Warehouse on 23 February 1999, was far more macabre: Stanley Kubrick's horror film The Shining, set in the Overlook Hotel that gives the show its name. A winter fantasy with ice skaters, beautiful hand-knitted jumpers, warm sheepskin, and intricate patchwork in a birch forest. The looks are predominantly in dark tones, contrasting with the white of the landscape. Among the models, with some kind of dazzling mask to hide their eyes, were Frankie Rayder and Kate Moss, the latter wrapped in a tin corset that almost looked like a straitjacket on the other side of the glass showcase.

Chanel FW19 

The farewell to the immensely talented Karl Lagerfeld was framed by a snowy paradise. Models piled on top of each other on the steps of a mock alpine inn, the Chanel Gardenia, in a serene tribute, as discrete as Lagerfeld had been all his life. There was a minute's silence, then the designer's address on the latest collection, created in collaboration with his long-time right-hand woman (and now creative director of the fashion house) Virginie Viard: he spoke in French until a final sentence in English, a comment on the pleasure it gives him to see the surprise in the audience during a show: "Oh! It's like entering a painting!". Among tweed suits, tailored coats, and wide-brimmed hats, the designer's idols, from Cara Delevingne to Penelope Cruz, presented themselves.

Saint Laurent FW21

A huge waterfall, glaciers, cliffs, crashing waves, and a black beach that shimmers like slate: Anthony Vaccarello's winter landscape is extreme, alien, almost barren, in stark contrast to the ethereal maidens parading amid glittering gowns and bright colors, coiffed and bejeweled. Entitled "Where the Silver Wild Blows", the 60s-inspired collection includes various metal pieces with sharper silhouettes in bright colors that combine typical French styles with glam rock elements.

Miu Miu FW21

Cortina D'Ampezzo, an epic high-mountain landscape in the Dolomites, was the perfect place to celebrate one of Ms. Prada's great passions: Snow. Inspired by the extreme shift between indoor and outdoor clothing, confinement, and liberation, the collection drew inspiration from the contradictions of the pandemic: oversized parkas and woolly hats, short dresses, and sheer tops paired with Yeti boots. Figuratively, it was a metaphor for the post-enclosure state: a material outburst of our mental state, the desire for liberation (and getting out despite the temperatures) through a kind of alpine underwear ("Very sexy stuff for me" Miuccia Prada commented).

Balenciaga FW22

A blizzard in a glass box and the models as faint twigs in the wind, dressed in haute couture. Balenciaga's show for the FW22 collection in Paris had a double theme: a dystopian vision of a world where winter no longer exists and snow appears as something exotic, and support for the Ukrainian cause by depicting the very topical issue of war refugees. This evocative message is accompanied by a high level of research, both in the design of the models - from the leather trash bag to the cashmere towel to the overall look in logo scotch - and in the technology, including pre-folded fabrics and the "foldable" constructions of trench coats and double-breasted suits, bags made from converted boots, an HD trainer made from a single flexible piece and, above all, the new bio-based material made from mycelium.