LONDON – Carnival celebrations may have ended on Tuesday, but for not for Seán McGirr, whose debut collection for Alexander McQueen features models wearing chrome skull masks as they meander through an ancient pine forest.
Kering-owned Alexander McQueen, which appointed McGirr creative director last October, has released a handful of campaign images teasing the upcoming fall 2024 collection which will be shown in Paris on March 2.
The images also feature the house’s new logo, a refreshed version of the original conceived by founder Lee Alexander McQueen more than 30 years ago. The logo features the letter “C” nestled inside the “Q.”
The campaign shows models Debra Shaw and Frankie Rayder wearing looks including sleeveless minidresses paired with chunky boots; roomy suits with strong shoulders; and a silvery dress with a pattern that recalls cobwebs and broken glass.
The mood – despite the grotesque masks – is youthful and breezy.
McQueen said the campaign embraces the brand’s past “to inform the present and future.” The pine forest backdrop is meant to have “an ethereal Celtic ambiance,” nodding to McQueen’s and McGirr’s cultural heritage.
The campaign was photographed by Tommy Malekoff, with art direction by Edward Quarmby.
A campaign image from Seán McGirr’s fall 2024 debut collection for Alexander McQueen.
Courtesy of Alexander McQueen/Tommy Malekoff
McGirr replaced McQueen’s longtime creative director Sarah Burton in a surprise shakeup at the house last fall. He had most recently served as head of menswear at JW Anderson.
Like his predecessors, the Dublin-born McGirr was educated in England, and finds endless inspiration in the streets of London.
A photographer as well as a designer, McGirr is known to have a sharp eye and a feel for fabric.
McGirr was also among the last students to study at Central Saint Martins under Louise Wilson, the hard-driving professor who mentored and shaped the careers of designers including Christopher Kane, Roksanda Ilincic and Mary Katrantzou. Wilson died a few months after McGirr completed his MA course in 2014.
Before joining JW Anderson, he worked at Dries Van Noten on the womenswear collection. His résumé also includes stints at Burberry and Christophe Lemaire for Uniqlo.
Gianfilippo Testa, chief executive officer of Alexander McQueen, said last year that McGirr’s “experience, personality and creative energy, will bring a powerful creative language to Alexander McQueen while building on its unique heritage.”
McGirr is the first designer at the house not to have worked under Alexander McQueen, who died in 2010. After his death, the brand closed ranks and, under Burton, preserved McQueen’s tough, sharp-edged aesthetic.
