LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT
In an underpass in London’s Camden Lock lies Cyberdog, a ravers’ paradise selling the sort of Day-Glo clothing, partywear, and shot glasses that wouldn’t be out of place at Burning Man. The shop is a rite of passage for any fashion-curious teenager in the U.K. trying to find creative go-go juice, including McQueen creative director Seán McGirr, who first visited when he was 13. He used the shop and its colorful community as a starting point for his Spring/Summer 2027 collection. In the National Gallery, a world away from Camden’s punk patina, hangs The Baptism of Christ, a painting by Piero Della Francesca that gave McGirr more food for thought. “I was struck by its transcendence and serenity, and one thing I really love about London is its rave culture,” he says. “I wanted to bring two worlds together, neoclassicism and rave, and create a tension between them.”
LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT
McQueen as a house has long traded on a kind of sartorial and sensorial darkness, as well as the light that can be found within it. Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, the show venue—a Gothic Revival chapel built in 1315, flanked by its grand arches—was chosen by McGirr to be an extension of Della Francesca’s painting. “I wanted a venue that almost brought it to life,” he says. The chapel was submerged into darkness before being awoken by throbbing bass, courtesy of A.G. Cook, one of London’s most exciting music producers, who soundtracked the show. The first look, a tailored, low-slung pantsuit, was paired with a glossy unbuttoned shirt and finished with the model’s hair fashioned into devil’s horns. Lee Alexander McQueen famously trained on Savile Row. McGirr looked to this history, specifically the subversive designs of Savile Row provocateur Tommy Nutter, and collaborated with Huntsman (another more-traditional Savile Row establishment) to reimagine the Row’s clothing for the ravers. McGirr looked back at McQueen collections from 1995 and 1996 and the elongated line of the blazers, marrying them with a curvature detail over the shoulders for his modern interpretation. “The look was really about evoking the idea of an angel’s wing in the tailoring so you felt shrouded and protected in the jackets,” he notes.
LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT
McGirr explains that he only works in narratives, thinking not just of the design but the journeys they take after he’s done. He says his eveningwear “was more made for a rave in South London” than it was a black-tie gala. McGirr twisted bodices on satin gowns, engineering them to move, to dance all night. Dresses have a purposeful texture by way of embroidery and silver leaf embellishments that were warped almost to the point of decay. Armor-like structure for the shoes was intentional, as shields for the hedonistic nights they may take.
McQueen’s show last night was unmistakably a story about London. That’s fitting, as last night marked the brand's return to the London Fashion Week calendar after seasons showing in Paris, and the collection felt like a homecoming, literally and spiritually. “There is just a different attitude here,” McGirr says. “People mix things here in a ‘wrong’ way, and it is not as conventional when it comes to style. And I love that wrongness: that proportion, the tiny tops, the low rise I see on the streets. I go and look outside and bring that back to the studio and refine it.”
Originally published by harpersbazaar.com. Syndicated material does not necessarily reflect the views of Vogue British.
