A fantastical white line drawing of a twisting tree with creatures emerging from and around it decorates this black strapless dress. The digitally woven scene derives from a series of illustrations by Arthur Rackham for a 1908 publication of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. An expansive elm on the property of McQueen’s seventeenth-century East Sussex home was another source of inspiration to the collection. A branching headpiece of woven twine by Michael Schmidt references both the ancient elm and the stag that lives among it.

Arthur Rackham
Bottom from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1908)
Photo credit: Painters / Alamy Stock Photo