The Kate Moss 'hologram' at Alexander McQueen's 2006 show was not a hologram: it was Pepper's ghost
Alexander McQueen (@alexandermcqueen) closed his autumn winter 2006 show in Paris, The Widows of Culloden, with Kate Moss turning inside a glass pyramid. Almost everyone calls it a hologram. It was Pepper's ghost, a reflection trick worked out by Henry Dircks and John Henry Pepper and shown to London on Christmas Eve 1862.
A hologram records light. This one needed a sheet of glass, a bright light and a film of Moss.
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The post, as it ran
01THE KATE MOSS HOLOGRAM AT ALEXANDER MCQUEEN'S 2006 SHOW WAS NOT A HOLOGRAM. IT WAS A VICTORIAN STAGE TRICK FROM 1862.
02THE TRICK IS CALLED PEPPER'S GHOST. A BRIGHTLY LIT FIGURE IS HIDDEN FROM THE AUDIENCE AND REFLECTED IN AN ANGLED SHEET OF GLASS.
03THE REFLECTION LOOKS LIKE A SEE THROUGH PERSON STANDING ON THE STAGE. NO LASERS. JUST GLASS, LIGHT AND A FILM OF HER.
04LONDON SAW IT ON CHRISTMAS EVE 1862, IN A STAGING OF A CHARLES DICKENS GHOST STORY AT A SCIENCE HALL ON REGENT STREET.
05MCQUEEN, THE LONDON DESIGNER, PUT IT INSIDE A GLASS PYRAMID ON HIS PARIS RUNWAY IN MARCH 2006, WITH MOSS LIFE SIZE IN BILLOWING CHIFFON.
06THE FILM WAS DIRECTED BY BAILLIE WALSH. HIS TEAM REBUILT THE WHOLE ROOM ON A COMPUTER TO WORK OUT WHERE THE GHOST SHOULD SIT.
07THE SAME TEAM CAME BACK TOGETHER IN 2015 TO REMAKE IT FOR THE MCQUEEN EXHIBITION AT THE V&A MUSEUM IN LONDON.