Sarah Burton is soaring to new creative heights at the house of Alexander McQueen. It's apt that her fourth womenswear catwalk collection for the brand, A/W12, deals with ascension too, fixated to an almost fetishistic extent with the idea of lightness. There was the feeling that these painstakingly laboured 34 couture looks were hovering. Or changing from the tangible to ethereal, shifting shape before dissolving into air.

It's apt that her fourth womenswear catwalk collection for the brand, A/W12, deals with ascension too, fixated to an almost fetishistic extent with the idea of lightness

Dandelion-like embroideries, explosions of organza and shaggy goat fur progressed from ice white, look by mirrored visor look, toward the kick of fuschia and black. The McQueen woman is complex after all, a romantic keeping her passion on a leash. Sometimes that overflowing heart takes over.

Here, Dazed Digital presents an exclusive behind-the-scenes film of the collection, which was presented in Paris during the March womenswear shows – to the rapture of those in attendance.

Film by Sean Frank