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 peeka.