Seán McGirr - Designer, Creative Director of Alexander McQueen

[JohannesL]

In response to the cyberbullying against Sean McGirr in TFS, I highly recommend this template if he happens to visit this thread.

 

[blueorchid]

The line about the Bill Blass book takes me out every time.

 

[Kimihiro]

View attachment 1334468

I’m still waiting for the missing pieces of this meltdown scrubbed away from the internet.

Anyway, I want to like Sean for personal reasons. I read that Vogue piece, and being in somehow the same generations I think we share some sensibilities. I too grew up “worshipping” Lee McQueen and Hedi Slimane. I grew up watching 2000s fashion as way an outsider. I think of those years in more idealized and nostalgic manner.

As time goes by though you realize that those designers are good beyond what the imagery suggests. McQueen more than the transgression can be good tailoring—he could do outlandish because the foundation of his work still lies in craftsmanship. It’s something that I feel like Sean is missing, and why Burton somehow worked even without the grotesque undertones. He needs to design with intent, to strive for technicality, for direction. Every Lee show there’s a strong intent. You cannot just let nostalgia and cliché takeover.

 

[PDFSD]

mcqueen is more of a feeling than a certain signature cuts although it does not always have to be "dark and goth" (although burton succesfully solified the mcqueen look which mcgirr is trying to demolish). You can't have something dark if you don't have the light. For me that's what mcqueen and burton were at Mcqueen.

At many times I had the mcqueen feeling with burton's tenure, the further away she tried to do "what would mcqueen do" and the more she put herself in the collections, the more i felt that she was doing mcqueen.

But ofcourse im sure many would disagree since they all want the dark, punk, tortured mcqueen which was personally coming from lee mcqueens life. Mcqueen will only be succesful again if someone bring their life into their collections.

i do think Mc Queen has some signature cuts especially in tailoring the shoulders and the nipped waist and bumster pants even if not commercial even certain styles of shoes and heels etc corset dress´s construction, the tight pencil skirts with slit etc.

but even if it's not the dark parts in his own words lee spoke of Mcqueen brand being about : evolution evolution, keep on pushing boundaries, making clothes not a part of a wardrobe but making them part of a person.

If : transcending fashion Ephemeral cycle , aiming it into a second skin, he envisioned garments that weren't mere additions to a wardrobe but a extension of the wearer - organic transformative and inseparable from identity (Lee interview on show studio 2009)

.... is not a clear setting foundation or guideline to evolve post Lee than one should find another job

i don't think the brand has to be only about lee´s personal torture which are also universal human experiences thats why he brought them to the day light into his work, because it spoke about us a society and the taboo´s etc

i am sure if one reads more McGirr could have created a founding brand book /manifesto as a way to be guiding the project , but like he did not even have time to go to archive but reading takes few minutes a day .....just shows lack of effort and dept in the end results as well.