231027 Collection Digital Cover 1 - Flipbook - Page 41
“Burton became an integral part of the company;
she managed to curb the fierce energy of McQueen’s
designs and translate them into more commercial,
accessible items.”
In the aftermath of shock and confusion following the designer’s suicide,
those in the house of McQueen were left in darkness and doubt whilst the
Gucci Group decided on the brand’s fate. It was finally announced that,
in tribute to the designer, the Gucci Group would continue to support
and build on the Alexander McQueen brand, but the question on
everybody’s lips was: who would take over from the troubled genius?
To those who knew McQueen, there was only one choice.
Sarah Burton had worked by McQueen’s side since 1996 when she won
an internship with the designer – he was friends with the tutor who’d
recommended her for the role — whilst studying print fashion at
Central Saint Martins. Not put off by McQueen’s odd interview questions
about UFOs, Burton started the internship and later worked for the
designer full-time after graduating. It was the beginning of a 14-year
friendship and collaboration, during which he would constantly
challenge her, both creatively and technically, and she would become
his most trusted advisor.
Burton became an integral part of the company; she managed to curb
the fierce energy of McQueen’s designs and translate them into more
commercial, accessible items. Although she shares her late mentor’s
obvious talent for decorous and poetic grandeur, her designs exhibited
a lightness of touch that attracted many new followers to the brand since
she took over as Creative Director.
as a softly-spoken and discreet young woman, she chose to stay in the
background whilst increasingly shouldering his workload in the final
years. Her solo collections were a credit to McQueen, whom Burton
attributed with teaching her “everything,” paying homage to the late
designer’s dramatic aesthetic but with an added feminine take. She
described her final collection in Autumn Winter 2023 as “an exploration
of beauty and power through tailoring… The classic subverted: turned
inside out and upside down. Volume is neat – strict – or exploded.
Garments are dissected: slashed, sliced and twisted.” Collection
overview or notes on how to describe to her successor the DNA of the
Alexander McQueen aesthetic? “Thrives in the air, resists being rooted
and grows in the wild,” the prose continued, in painting orchids, but
perhaps also as a description of the kind of candidate who could fill
the mould of Lee McQueen.
As with Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Hedi Slimane for Dior and Oliver
Rousteing for Balmain, Seán McGirr has been anointed to fill the
hallowed shoes of the fashion sorcerer now that his apprentice has left.
The Dublin-born designer will sit on a sartorial throne in a fashion house
paying homage to its founder and namesake’s sheer vision and talent –
the kind of fashion genius that only emerges once in a lifetime, but whose
legacy and fate was sealed in less than a generation.
Showstopping creations from the Princess of Wales’s wedding dress
to the custom-made black mesh body suit worn by Beyoncé for the
opening night of her Renaissance tour propelled a camera-shy Burton
into the glaring media spotlight. The polar opposite of McQueen,
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