He got the wild, but maybe not the beauty.
Sean McGirr's debut was like an old-school Alexander McQueen show in one way: we were in the middle of nowhere, in the dark and the rain, and everyone left with an opinion.
Taking over a damp warehouse and using industrial pipes as seating, McGirr created a cinematic atmosphere for his ragtag character study from the darkest corners of London's East End. Gangsters, glamazons, artists, pimps and the possible serial killer who swung a flashlight inside his coat stalked the catwalk as they stalked the streets, with hunched postures, furious walks and menacing glances. It's been done before, but it was entertaining to watch and was the start of selling a new (old?) McQueen attitude.
Linking design threads from the past to the present and expressing them in a unique and different way is more of a work in progress.
McGirr, who grew up in Dublin and now lives in London's Kings Cross, was inspired by the rugged glamor and twisted opulence of figures such as the Kray Twins and Francis Bacon.
He's also a film fan, raised on David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino and Japanese horror films, as he said, before calling “The Exorcist” his favorite film of all time. (The sharp shoulders of the waist-hugging leather coats and pointed fedoras also evoked the gangster style of “The Untouchables,” made by Giorgio Armani and costume designer Marilyn Vance.)
With a background at Fast Retailing and JW Anderson, he started at McQueen in December and said during a preview that he didn't have time to visit the archives before this collection. Instead, McGirr looked at pictures and then drew. He was drawn to McQueen's 1995 collection, inspired by Hitchcock's film “The Birds,” and opened the show with a reworking of that collection's clingfilm dress, made from a laminated black silk jersey, resembling to a fancy garbage bag.
It was more forgiving than McQueen's original, in keeping with the designer's philosophy that clothes should be worn nonchalantly. In that way, it seemed to be leading the way toward something more streetwear-oriented than its previous corseted, tailored-to-an-inch-of-its-life ethos, which might ultimately be more successful for ready-to-wear. clothing sales.
Certainly, McGirr's tailoring was more nonchalant with dramatic, stacked but not pointed shoulders, trumpet sleeves and narrow waists. The fit could be improved. However, bootcut jeans tied with laces were in style and should sell.
Also appealing were overdyed Scottish and Irish knit cardigans, cinched in the back with giant safety pins and worn over raw-edged skirts. But the oversized knits and extreme funnel neck sweaters were a bit familiar and tired. Crackled shearling garments and calf-hair corset dresses best evoked the rawness the designer was going for, along with hoof shoes that met McQueen's statement footwear requirements.
In addition to the basics, the house also has a history of exquisite craftsmanship and embroidery (Sarah Burton designed Kate Middleton's wedding dress, for God's sake). But McGirr wanted to approach that part of the brand's history in a more brutal way, he said about placing broken glass in the suit “so it doesn't look too pretty.” That might be an idea worth exploring further.
The same goes for the embroidered dresses destroyed with pieces of bicycle reflectors and chandeliers, like a very spectacular crash. Following in the footsteps were molded aluminum “car” dresses with hourglasses in Lamborghini yellow and Aston Martin blue, inspired by McGirr's father, who is a mechanic.
This collection didn't quite connect the dots with McQueen, the storyteller and technician of Savile Row, or with Burton as guardian of the British Isles' craft tradition. But once McGirr gets into the archives, he might go there. Or not. Designer succession has been a hot topic this season, and breaking with the past may be a better way to avoid endless repetition of the same old, if there's enough creative spark.
“I'm not a nostalgic person at all, because that blocks me,” McGirr said of her process. He left me wanting to see more.
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