Still not a huge fan (and that article was heinously long…) but I think if he sat down and gave himself a chance to just focus on three major things for a collection he would be infinitely better.
I’m still unsure as to what his perspective is, besides being a bit student obsessed with McQueen-lite. He’s getting better, and there’s internet buzz but long term he has to hone in on things.
I do wonder what the team is like around him and if that has shifted when he came into the role to suit him more than Burton? Only wonder that because if he’s working alongside others that think the same way as he does, there isn’t much room for growth. The great thing about McQueen are the references. Not just the collections themselves but what influenced them beyond the contemporary realms of London counter culture. He needs to go beyond the surface level imagery of those ideas and look at what made McQueen work. The historicism, the allusions to the likes of Montana, Mugler, Gres, Kawakubo, Alaia, visual art, the esoteric, biology/anatomy, and whatnot. Burton tapped into that every now and then and managed to have her own perspective, so I think McGirr needs to do the same.
Not to be obtuse, but what I’ve always enjoyed about McQueens work was always those interests. Where he pulled things from which seemed so abstract when looking at it altogether but somehow all works. McGirr is still very green, and very random, but if he just focused more he’d really get there.