Things got horny at McQueen’s SS27 homecoming

Closing day four of London Fashion Week SS27, the most anticipated show of the season took place yesterday evening (September 20). After 25 years of showing in Paris, Alexander McQueen made a grand return to London, its city of origin. Lee ‘Alexander’ McQueen, who died in 2010, was born in Lewisham and raised in Stratford. He was trained by two of London’s most prestigious fashion institutions, Central Saint Martins and Savile Row, and often credited the UK capital as the source of his creativity. “London is where I was brought up. It’s where my heart is and where I get my inspiration,” he once said. The same quote was used at the entrance of the 2012 Savage Beauty exhibition, which led attendees into the London room, showcasing some of his earliest work. 

At yesterday’s show, creative director Seán McGirr took us on a trip down memory lane, reworking some of the late designer’s greatest hits, while bringing them into the present. Here are the best moments.

A homecoming of this scale was always going to draw a large crowd. Hosted at London’s historic Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, guests were ushered into the building’s dark undercroft, where camera flashes lit up the starry front row. Famous faces included Florence Welch, Emma Corrin, Sophie Thatcher, Jamie Campbell Bower, Eva Anderson and Salma Hayek, but Siouxsie Sioux was the real guest of honour. As the frontwoman of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sioux was a frequent source of inspiration for McQueen, who used her music to soundtrack his shows on multiple occasions. 20 years ago, at his AW97 show, he directly referenced Sioux’s make-up, pairing it with other inspirations like the Salem witch trials and Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra.

Alexander McQueen loved London so much that he even dedicated one of his collections to an East End pub. His AW09 show was titled The Horn of Plenty, named after a pub in Spitalfields that no longer exists, where one of Jack the Ripper’s victims was last seen. During this evening’s show, not only was the models’ hair gelled into devilish horns, but some shapes nodded to The Horn of Plenty collection. For example, there was the raven-black dress, nipped in at the waist with feathers erupting from the hips, or the dress made from glistening silver skulls, resembling the metal armour worn underneath a red snakeprint gown in the original collection. 

Just in time for Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Joan of Arc movie, McGirr took the opportunity to remind us that saints and angels are an integral part of McQueen’s history. Several silhouettes resembled those from the designer’s AW98 show, Joan – the lace face coverings (as worn by Lady Gaga to the 2009 VMAs), corsets paired with light organza skirts (modelled by Paloma Elsesser), as well as reflective, silver and inky black fabrics. One of McGirr’s key inspirations also stemmed from the divine: Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ. However, all things holy were juxtaposed by one of the designer’s contrasting passions: London’s rave scene. According to the show notes, it was a collection based around the idea of “finding synergy between the sacred and the subcultural.” The punky hair cemented in place, the subtle nods to bondage harnesses, reflective sunglasses and extraterrestrial accessories – all styling choices that could easily be seen at Fabric or UnFOLD. After all these years in Paris, maybe McGirr has been missing a good London night out.