In the heart of Paris, at L’Orangerie du Sénat, creative director Sarah Burton chose to present Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2018 men’s collection. In her post since the founder’s death in 2010, Sarah Burton was the designer’s right-hand assistant before that. For the Spring/Summer 2018 collection, she brings a number of the aesthetic and technical rules of McQueen into dialogue: the essence of the straight cut alongside the legendary tailors of Saville Row and a fascination for British folklore. Nevertheless, forgetting their punk aspirations and rock’n’roll inspirations would be akin to foregoing the brand’s own DNA.
50s rockers, colonial dandies, and Edwardian codes all get an injection of Sarah Burton’s stylistic language, the same that made Alexander McQueen so renowned. For Spring/Summer 2018, men are able to deftly pair ultra-tailored suit pants and long sleeveless coats made of slightly gothic leather. Even better, the runway’s iconic piece is incarnated in this long scarlet coat. First by the precision of its cuts, worthy of the work of the old ateliers on Saville Row where McQueen honed his craft, then through the scarlet color. This color was loved by Alexander because of its ties to folklore, for instance, the story of Joan of Arc.
“I love the idea of paganism, of fabrication and repair, explorers and pioneers,” explained the brand’s creative director. Sarah Burton’s men are going down the runway for the first time in Paris, with a fascination for nature also blooming at the heart of the Jardin du Luxembourg. “The idea is to celebrate nature as part of nature, as opposed to a type of shackles between the two. It’s not about conquering or ruling, it’s really the idea of listening to nature and the world,” she added afterwards. And so Spring/Summer 2018 becomes the time for pieces imagined outdoors with a poetic, fantastic, and textural vision of human craftsmanship. This is a superb example of the art of fashion that continues to make McQueen’s signature shine.
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