Alexander McQueen for Givenchy Haute Couture Beaded Dress Fall/Winter 1998 "Blade Runner"

A sheath dress from Alexander McQueen's Fall/Winter 1998 Givenchy Haute Couture collection — presented at a moment when McQueen's tenure at the house had reached its most fully realized expression. The collection, staged on an illuminated checkerboard runway and developed around a dystopian, cinematic vision, remains among the most documented presentations in late-20th-century couture history.

Every inch of the bodice and skirt is hand-beaded in dense jet-black bugle beads shot through with an iridescent blue-purple sheen. Cream silk banding at the bust and hip provides a sharp architectural counterpoint — a deliberate break in the surface that emphasizes the garment's structural precision.

The weight of the beading speaks directly to the atelier hours required: garment-by-garment hand-work of the kind that defines the haute couture standard. McQueen directed Givenchy Haute Couture from 1996 to 2001, bringing to the house a tension between its founding codes of restraint and his own instinct for the extreme.

Signed Givenchy Couture, Paris. Made in France. French couture size 38. Accompanied by original Givenchy garment bag.