Alexander McQueen — or simply McQueen as it’s now known — has released its latest campaign and it’s another step in reshaping the brand under still-new creative chief Seán McGirr.

It’s set against the backdrop of East London and “captures the renegade glamour of the city’s youth — the diverse characters navigating concrete banks and sprawling streets, seeking its primal pleasures”.

In a release, the company said that “their style is tactile; twisted; taut. An animal opulence bursts from the seams of tufted denim and the breast of razor sharp suiting encrusted with shattered jet-stones. The flash of a hard metal T-bar buckle, cool-to-the-touch against rich, oxblood leather — the Sling bag, strapped tightly and held close to the body. The same buckle restraining the trailing tendrils of the Fringe loafer. Constricted or cocooning, their uniform is one crafted for basal instinct — for the sensuous pleasure of great, swaddling shearling clashed with the hardened fragments of modern life. For the vagaries of London”.

McGirr added that “McQueen is a London-born brand and has always represented an idea of London that I’m deeply attached to. It has a very visceral kind of energy, driven by the eclectic cast of characters you see here. I want to bring that energy to life with the rigour and raw feeling that makes the city’s air hum, leaning deep into its tensions — something that feels poetic and primal; powerful and real. Something that comes from people. I want to bring light to that”.

The designer took over from Sarah Burton at McQueen only in December 2023. 

The Irish national was born in Dublin in 1988 and like many of the big names at major fashion houses is a graduate of Central Saint Martins in London. While there he he obtained a Master of Arts in Fashion in 2014. 

Prior to joining McQueen, he was Head of Ready-to-Wear at JW Anderson and previously held roles at Dries Van Noten, Uniqlo and Burberry.