Seán McGirr Proposes a New Language at McQueen

For his long-awaited debut at Alexander McQueen, Seán McGirr conjugates proportion, silhouette and individuality all in one sentence.

Seán McGirr, 35, takes his first bow as Creative Director of Alexander McQueen.

One thing I have learned to avoid over the years is judging debut collections with hawking eyes. Instead, I try to appreciate the work like a dove: curiously, patiently, unassumingly, and most importantly, open to spontaneity.

In recent seasons, this POV has proven useful with names being indexed in the fashion rolodex almost by the dozen. Last September, it was Sabato De Sarno’s induction at Gucci, and Peter Hawkings’ passing of the torch from Tom Ford. This Fall/Winter 2024 was eventful as well: Argentinian designer, Adrian Appiolaza, came through the front door at Moschino, Chemena Kamali’s Chloé reboot and, finally, Seán McGirr’s long-awaited debut at Alexander McQueen.

Following Sarah Burton, who directed the brand for over a decade and who’s considered the highest priestess of the McQueen spirit—she started at the brand in 1997, becoming Lee’s right hand and mentee—McGirr proposed a stark contrast from her Rococo sensibility. Wet concrete, steel and old industrial rust; leather and a stomping strut. By recalling familiar themes and rethinking silhouettes through proportion, McGirr delivered a subversively self-referential, polarising collection that succeeds at elevating the brand’s rather contemporary heritage into legacy status.

A bondage-inspired leather jacket and trousers from the Spring 1991 collection of John McKitterick. Even though Lee worked for the brand as a part-time machinist and pattern cutter, the influence is evident. (source: Watt)

McGirr opened with a distorted drape dress in black, laminated jersey.

One of the most controversial moments in the history of McQueen came with the 1997 show Bellmer La Poupée, showcasing a collection inspired by Hans Bellmer’s nightmarish 1936 tableau of mutilated dolls.

Step by step, model Debra Shaw came down the stairs and through the water-clogged runway shackled above the elbows and knees to a metallic frame, altering her whole physicality, to evoke the feeling of mutilation in Bellmer’s piece. The media, nonetheless, flattened this as a racist gimmick.

To be fair, Lee wasn’t famous for being particularly articulate with his ideas.

Constraint also appeared in his SS01 collection Voss, centred around mental illness. In his 2000 Eye New York show, his first abroad, and consequently in his 2009 masterpiece, The Horn of Plenty—a collection named after the pub where Jack the Ripper’s last victim was last seen, a metaphor for impending disaster.

A woman caged inside a chainmail aluminum-plated armour, looking more like a medieval witch under trial than a fashion model. (Shaun Lean, the jeweller who created the original piece [seen below] later explained that it referenced a yashmak.)

The original version of the yashmak was shown in the 2000 New York show.

One of the key looks from the 2009 The Horn of Plenty collection.

A key look from the SS01 Voss collection, later included in the posthumous MET exhibit, Savage Beauty. (source: the exhibition catalogue)

Debra Shaw in the Bellmer La Poupée runway show.

A Polaroid Lee sent to his friend and collaborator, Simon Costin, in 1993. (source: Watt)

Born in Dublin, McGirr graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014—the same school McQueen attended in 1990 after being given a scholarship.

His experience includes time at Burberry, Vogue Hommes Japan, and with Christophe Lemaire. In 2018, Dries Van Noten appointed him the brand’s Women’s Designer and, in 2020, he became the head designer for men’s collections at JW Anderson—another Irish designer known for clever ideas, oddness and pristine execution.

“For me, it’s more about singular characters that have very strong personalities,” explained McGirr in a backstage Instagram video with Suzy Menkes. “When I see the shows in the ‘90s, there’s a sense of victory from being an outsider that I believe is deeply embedded in McQueen, and it’s something I’d like to bring forward.”

I understand McGirr’s point, it’s what attracted me to McQueen in the first place. The way he played within the darkest corners of the human mind and still managed to bring beauty out of them. His love for the grotesque and ghoulish I read as tender; his fascination with death and the mythical relatable. The distilled purity between what you saw on the runway and the creator I found to be the epitome of artistry; every stitch a pulsating vein.

JW Anderson Menswear Fall ‘22 (left) and ‘23 (right), both collections were head-designed by McGirr.

“Revealing the animal within,” stated McGirr, perhaps referencing the volume and elan provided by the natural shearling that aroused a couple of looks.

Kate Moss during the 2001 Voss show wearing a sandy-coloured dress with shearling details in feathered chiffon.

Surely, McGirr is not the master of the macabre Lee once was—he’s in no obligation to become one either. But he delivered grotesque in his own way. In the shoe department. The twisted anthropomorphism underlaid in the hoof boots—some with an attached silk ponytail—gave the models a faun-like gait and cadence, reminiscent of the 2009 Armadillo boots.

Or, the two ribbed wool dresses embroidered with a bizarrely protruding layer of ecru tufted wool, that made me think a lot about the 2017 Spanish film Skins; distortion was also an idea he mentioned in the video with Menkes.

The tailoring, so quintessential to the brand, was fluid and relaxed, bringing to mind McQueen’s early collections. The second look, a phantasmagorically languid tailored coat, could be interpreted as an exaggerated version of some of the frock coats from the 1994 Nihilism collection.

McQueen’s playful hand at tailoring and proportion came from a rebellion against the traditional values learnt at Savile Row, from an androgynous view of the line, and from a desire to elongate the human silhouette.

A black wool single-breasted coat from McQueen's 1992 'Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims' collection. A reworked single-button version by McGirr as seen on Shaw.

Back in 1993, McQueen wetted a sheer white polo-neck dress to add dimension; McGirr achieves something similar in white silk nylon tarpaulin.

McGirr has shown intelligence and understanding of the brand’s core, both important when designing an exciting, long-term narrative with an arc open to exponential, creative growth.

Steering the wheels of a brand with such a distinctive heritage and legacy, built on such peculiar values and aesthetics, born from such strong and bold emotions and imaginations will never be an easy task but, if articulated well and in the correct rhythm, it can represent a new language for the brand to speak.

Something tells me McGirr might be the right ventriloquist.

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Bibliography:

• Watt, Judith. Alexander McQueen: The Life and Legacy, Harper Design, New York, 2012.