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 A more subdued period of Alexander McQueen's career began with his Spring/Summer 2006 menswear collection.  The drama persisted, but it wasn't dependent on the kind of spectacular display that had come to really characterize him. There were no holograms, no flaming fire, no breaking glass boxes. Solely a stage covered in fabric sails and tangled parachutes that looked like the remains of some sort of wreckage.  Models walked barefoot and ominously slow, their clothes slipping off their frames like a second skin, their faces streaked with paint that looked like warriors.

 McQueen had long experimented with the codes of masculinity, either cutting them with a knife or bending them into the shadow of history.  He untangled them here.  Coats hung with a lived-in heaviness, trousers dragged on the floor, and shirts were either shredded or transparent.

While textures clashed—sequins against knits, feathers against silk, fraying cotton against sheerness—the palette leaned pale and faded, with off-whites, greys, and washed patterns. The result was clothing that had been salvaged rather than styled.

The most obvious message was conveyed by the makeup. Upon first glance it may seem alarming and perhaps scary. Faces and throats are adorned with striking black and red striations that are more ceremonial than decorative. They turned the models into figures that straddled the line between specter and survivor, suggesting theater and war, life and afterlife. They resembled ghosts, echoes from McQueen's own earlier collections, paired with vacant eyes and disheveled hair.

Indeed, the show featured elements from his previous work, such as Voss's unwavering emotion, the historical significance of The Dance of the Twisted Bull, and the rawness of Highland Rape. Here, however, the grandeur was diminished.

What was left seemed less staged and more personal.

More collapse than climax.

The intentional collapse appeared to be a reflection of McQueen's main conflict: order against chaos, strength against fragility. SS06 did not should that. SS06 let the quiet speak for itself. The image of survival—skin, paint, and fabric that had barely been stitched together—remained after everything else had fallen.