The show took place in London
Locked down in London during the pandemic, Sarah Burton rediscovered her love of the city that created Alexander McQueen. Her last two collections were designed around ideas of London and shot in its streets (and river). The city became her inspiration. So, when fashion decided to go back to Paris last month, Burton decided to stay at home. “We spent the last year-and-a-half working here. London is where McQueen is from, where it started, where the studio is. It’s where everybody works and lives and breathes. That’s why I wanted to do it here,” she said after her first runway show since the pandemic, staged atop a 10-story parking garage on the Tobacco Dock.
It was based on storm chasers
Wrapped in a brightly-lit plastic dome, the rooftop venue kind of called for the dramatic weather London normally delivers by the bucket load, but today, Burton’s storm chasers had to settle for sun. The hazardous pastime inspired her collection: a post-pandemic image of mankind accepting the powers of nature rather than fighting it. “In the studio, we’re surrounded by the sky,” Burton said, referring to the big windows that frame her ateliers. “The sky can be beautiful, it can be turbulent, it can be passionate, it can be frightening, it can be dangerous. I wanted to express that in the collection: things are beyond our control. We’re part of nature, and we have to respect it. We have to live through all of it, storm chasing.”
Sarah Burton used storm chasing as a post-pandemic message
Burton translated the idea into stormy motifs on dramatic plissé dresses that looked as if the wind was carrying them off the models’ shoulders; in the couture-like volume of a peacoat that morphed into a billowing windbreaker; in dresses and skirts structured to evoke the impression of headwind; and rigid leather and denim silhouettes made for storm chasing action (well, figuratively speaking). “It represents what we’re all living through. There are times of sunshine and moments of turbulence. You have to confront and not hide away from it. It’s about being brave enough to have the courage to deal with it,” Burton said. “I think everybody learned from the pandemic. It changed many, many things, and I don’t think that things are quite the same, or will be the same again. Maybe it’s shifted people’s way of thinking. We designed this in a slightly different way.”
It was all about the cast
If there was something different about Burton’s approach, it was underpinned by a cast that felt more diverse than ever, crowned by a closing exit courtesy of Naomi Campbell. Changing her approach to designing and presenting her collections during the pandemic, Burton had grown closer to her models (many of which aren’t professional models), and discovered how rewarding those connections were. “It made you focus on the individual. It became about this community of women, and how these clothes look on women. I made clothes for them as people. It was about them inspiring you as much as you inspired them,” she explained. “It’s about treating each of them as an individual and enhancing their personality, and how they feel. It’s about being sensitive.”
Expect Alexander McQueen to keep doing things its own way
As for the future of Alexander McQueen’s show cycle, Burton said she quite enjoys doing things on her own terms. “The rhythm has been slightly different, and it felt like our own rhythm, in our own time, without having to be formulaic. If anything, it’s made me appreciate my studio even more: how hard they work and what that means.” Thankfully for Burton, wherever she decided to show, we’ll be her storm chasers.
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