Natural Dis-tinction Un-natural Selection

Natural Dis-tinction Un-natural Selection is the thirty-third collection by British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, made for the Spring/Summer 2009 season of his eponymous fashion house. The collection reflected McQueen's concerns about human impact on the environment, while drawing inspiration from the work of naturalist Charles Darwin. Natural Dis-tinction is known for its pioneering use of digital prints, which were engineered to match the patterns of their garments; at the time this was a new technique.

Two distinct phases of designs contrasted the beauty of the environment with the impact of human industry. The first phase used soft colours, organic motifs, and flowing lines to present an image of nature unspoiled by man. The second featured prints manipulated to look unnaturally perfect, with some designs in artificially bright colours and others in black and white. Across both phases, McQueen presented both classical and experimental silhouettes. Forty-one looks were presented at the collection's runway show, which was staged on 3 October 2008 at the Cent Quatre building in Paris, a community centre that was once a mortuary. The catwalk was framed by two lines of exotic taxidermy animals; a large round screen at the rear of the stage showed projections of celestial bodies and McQueen's own eyeball.

Contemporary critical response was somewhat mixed, with journalists preferring the more romantic first half of the show. Some were disappointed at the lack of runway theatrics for which McQueen had been known. McQueen continued to explore environmental themes and digital prints in his following two collections; he is credited with popularising the use of such prints in fashion. Ensembles from Natural Dis-tinction are held by various museums and have appeared in exhibitions such as the McQueen retrospective Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.