McGirr is the first designer to lead the house that has not worked with Lee McQueen himself. At 35, he is part of a crop of fashionphiles who came of age when McQueen was at his creative peak. To most millennials, the designer’s visual language is intrinsic to their collective definition of fashion. The McQueen red tartan and skull motifs, together with the original Alexander McQueen logo (with the “c” inside the “Q”) that was first drawn by McQueen over 30 years ago, are what many in the mainstream, to this day, visually associate the most with the house and its founder. There’s also the famous McQueen skull scarf, which debuted on the spring 2003 runway and became one of the It-items of the aughts. It has recently resurfaced on TikTok, with Gen Z rediscovering its sartorial sorcery.
That these elements are resurfacing as part of McGirr’s first creative push for McQueen offers insight into his direction for the house. It’s the McQueen you remember, but re-contextualized for a new day.