On 6 October 2009, Alexander McQueen unveiled his 2010 Spring/Summer collection - Plato’s Atlantis, a collection that surged through the industry with its digital staging, futuristic tailoring, and the now-iconic Armadillo boots that pushed fashion into its most radical territory. Plato’s Atlantis has become one of the most influential, and technologically groundbreaking milestones in fashion history.
On 6 October 2009, Alexander McQueen unveiled his 2010 Spring/Summer collection - Plato’s Atlantis, a collection that surged through the industry with its digital staging, futuristic tailoring, and the now-iconic Armadillo boots that pushed fashion into its most radical territory. Plato’s Atlantis has become one of the most influential, and technologically groundbreaking milestones in fashion history.
November 22, 2025
On 6 October 2009, Alexander McQueen unveiled his 2010 Spring/Summer collection - Plato’s Atlantis, a collection that surged through the industry with its digital staging, futuristic tailoring, and the now-iconic Armadillo boots that pushed fashion into its most radical territory. Plato’s Atlantis has become one of the most influential, and technologically groundbreaking milestones in fashion history.
It was the first show ever streamed live on the internet, a digital prophecy that crashed servers, collapsed boundaries, and thanks to one unexpected pop-star intervention, rewrote the relationship between fashion and pop culture in real time.
The audience sat before a glowing arena of screens, as McQueen imagined a future where humanity evolves back to the sea. Models stepped out in reptilian prints, slick silicone exoskeletons, alien silhouettes, and then the shoes appeared. The Armadillo boots: 12-inch biomorphic sculptures carved like shells from another planet. Only 21 pairs exist in the world today, and their rarity has turned them into holy-grail collectibles, chased by museums, private collectors, and fashion obsessives for more than a decade.
But behind the beauty, backstage panic brewed. The Armadillos were so tall and physically punishing that Natasha Poly, Sasha Pivovarova, Vlada Roslyakova, and Abbey Lee Kershaw, some of the most powerful supermodels of that era allegedly refused to walk. The risk was simply too high. The shoes weren’t accessories; they were weapons masquerading as couture.
And then, something historic happened. Lady Gaga, watching from afar, tweeted a link to the livestream, crashing Showstudio’s servers. McQueen noticed. Weeks later, as Gaga prepared to film Bad Romance, the designer hand-selected her to receive almost the entire “Plato’s Atlantis” wardrobe. Before any stylist could borrow it, before any magazine could shoot it, before any editorial spread could claim it, Gaga got it. First. All of it. The iconic Armadillo boots, the final runway look, the alien silhouette: all sent directly to the music video set.
Three weeks after their runway debut, the world saw McQueen’s masterpiece not in a museum, not in Vogue, not in an ad campaign. But in a pop video that blurred fashion, art, and performance at a scale never seen before.
Avant-garde erupts into the mainstream, fueled by McQueen, amplified by Gaga, and lit by the dark, twisted allure of their visions. The world witnesses a brand-new species of aesthetic, where sharp silhouettes, alien textures, and audacious imagination collide to rewrite the rules of style forever.
