Sarah Burton wasn’t at this presentation, but she didn’t really need to be: the clothes were an evocative articulation of where she is as a designer now and the journey she’s taken to get here. A predominantly sartorial collection—some mohair sweaters in oversize abstract florals and a mean-looking studded perfecto/trench aside—it was in some ways a direct continuation of Fall’s wonderful womenswear in its emphasis on Englishness, both in terms of provenance and the potential for subversion in suiting. Strips of black wool used to create a long ruffle-skirted jacket with cut stones and stud detailing over the left pectoral were entirely sourced from upcycled off-cuts from the McQueen cutting room floor. Another jacket, in quietly conflicting widths of pinstripe, featured an eye-snagging false collar beneath the left lapel that made for a double single-breasted effect.
There were suits in blazing white broderie anglaise and full-on fuchsia mohair (both great looks to get married in) and another, this one black, with inlaid panels of black lace (perfect for the party after). The collection also looked back, way back, to evoke the period in which Burton and Lee McQueen would travel to Japan on inspiration trips. The half-kilted jackets were, in part, a nod to McQueen himself as well as continuation of a house shape. Further expressions of the house’s decorative ways included embroidered dragons on the back of double-layered jackets; pressed-flower embroideries on the hems of scarf-attached shirting; the bleeding-color Rorschach florals that featured on suits; and trenches. The models wore metal-set crystal pendants and earrings for good vibes, plus leather shoes and sneakers with steroidal-accentuated tread soles for extra size. As in all good McQueen collections, there was an undertow of the unsettling behind the beauty at the surface—a satisfying whisper of the sinister.
