Sean McGirr’s second runway outing for McQueen began with a tailored suit, the lapels rolled together at the chest as if to ward off a sudden London rainstorm—or perhaps the buffeting of his critics. The Irishman’s debut was met with intense skepticism last season. He was an untested front man replacing the beloved Sarah Burton, who had been Lee Alexander McQueen’s right hand and led the house on her own for over a decade. It was never going to be an easy launch, but it was made more difficult by the inhospitable warehouse space he chose on the outskirts of Paris for his show, and the cold rainy drive required to get there.
Putting all that behind him tonight, he staged his sophomore outing at the École des Beaux Arts, right off the Seine on the Left Bank, a venue that’s hosted scores of shows over the years, though never a McQueen collection, if memory serves. And, as McGirr pointed out, he had the benefit of a longer lead-up than he did for his first go-round. It showed in the collection, which was more cohesive and more commercially viable.
He said that he started by looking at Lee McQueen’s sketches, which are collected in the label’s archives. “You know, his signature was really the S-bend, so I was thinking of a way to interpret it,” he said. That’s how the rolled lapel silhouette came about. He also played with McQueen’s iconic bumster, cutting mid-rise trousers with a horizontal mesh panel an inch or so below the waistband that provided a peekaboo glimpse of skin whose effect was sweeter and less daring than the scandalising originals. On the more informal side, he used military surplus for a cropped jacket worn with a bustle-backed mini kilt as well as a washed cotton mac with a contrast color velvet collar.
McGirr had also been inspired by McQueen’s second runway show, Banshee, citing commonalities in their Celtic heritage and the stories his mother told him about the banshee’s strong spirit. The sophomore season parallel is handy too. Where his first reference, The Birds, is remembered as a fairly aggressive McQueen show, Banshee had dark romantic undertones. They manifested most clearly in a long black dress embroidered with thorns, a reference recognisable from the Met Gala dress he designed for Lana del Rey.
Comparatively, there was a bigger emphasis on red carpet fare this season. McGirr’s got a surer hand with eveningwear than with his tailoring, which will prove useful, given the valuable role celebrities can often play in rebrands these days. Daphne Guinness, who bought Isabella Blow’s extensive collection of McQueen’s work after her passing, was in the crowd tonight, giving McGirr her blessing. A frayed lilac georgette party dress inset with embroideries of silver bullion was striking and a mini dress in brushed white chiffon worn with a gold beaded and sequined jacket made for a strong look. But the one that really got the blood pumping—the one you could picture Guinness in—was the most extreme, with its shining embroideries of silver chains that followed the lines of the body. McGirr made some important advances here.
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