It Takes A Dedicated Fashionista To Slither Into Alexander McQueen’s Bumsters

For Sarah Burton’s McQueen spring/summer 2023 collection, she asked the question: “How do you dress a woman to empower her in the times that we live in?” Her answer to the unabashedly sexy trend that has ripped through fashion in recent seasons lay in the archives, specifically the ’90s, when low-rise trousers were creeping down torsos and climbing up the ranks as Planet Hollywood’s uniform of choice.

Lee McQueen’s low-risers, part of his first collection entitled Taxi Driver and presented on a rail at the Ritz in 1993, pushed the look to the extreme. His “bumsters”, which many first thought were inspired by builders’ bums, would have made even Christina Aguilera blush, but were in fact an avant-garde ode to anatomy. “To me, that part of the body – not so much the buttocks, but the bottom of the spine – that’s the most erotic part of anyone’s body,” McQueen said at the time.

Cut to today and bumsters are back on the menu, as Burton continues the house mission to create thought-provoking fashion that’s “always about a woman dressing for a woman”. “It’s not a male gaze,” she explained post-show, before admitting that even she was shocked about the proportions of her predecessor’s tailoring: “The crotch is very, very small. I had no idea!”

Despite the fact we’ve become immune to naked dresses and teeny-tiny bralettes, it was always going to take a special sort of person to step up to the mantle and wriggle into the bumsters. These are pantless trousers with no room for knickers (lest VPL spoil their eyebrow-raising effect), and afford little space for actually sitting down. Consider them Kim Kardashian fashion (this was the woman who lost 16 pounds to slither into Marilyn Monroe’s original “Happy birthday Mr President” dress), but young upstart Taylor Russell pipped the KarJenners to the post.

The Bones and All actor, who has been taking fashion memos from her co-star Timothée Chalamet, wore look two from McQueen’s spring/summer 2023 line – a razor-sharp suit featuring a cropped asymmetrical blazer, those extreme low-risers and a lot of torso – with the shoulders-back, head-up confidence that she has quickly become known for.

Vancouver-born Russell, who rarely buys anything new and is amassing quite the vintage archive, previously told British Vogue that she’s “in awe of the artistry in the world of fashion”, and honoured “to be part of its history”, whether that’s channelling Audrey Hepburn in Prada, becoming a Balenciaga muse in Demna’s couture or championing the anarchist style of one of Britain’s seminal designers: Lee McQueen. Admittedly, Burton might have conceded to raising the waistband a centimetre or so, but the commitment to serving a look – and risking a builder’s bum! – was there for everyone to see.