It was a magical moment at Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2020 when Alexander McQueen’s creative director Sarah Burton took her bow alongside the entire McQueen team, after what is widely acknowledged as one of the season’s most beautiful collections.
The show notes credited the Central Saint Martins students whose sketches featured in the collection, too. Set to a score composed by Isobel Waller-Bridge (sister of Fleabag’s Phoebe) and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra, the enigmatic designer’s choice to share the limelight, as it were, spoke volumes.
“I love the idea of people having the time to make things together, the time to meet and talk together, the time to reconnect to the world,” says Burton. It’s an idea she took quite literally, and look number 10 — a round-neck dress with an asymmetric draped skirt in ivory linen, decorated with embroidered dancing girls — embodies it best.
© Chloe Le Drezen
Worn by Stella Tennant on the runway, the dress was made from linen crafted in Northern Ireland. The entire McQueen team took part in embroidering the dress, an endeavor organised and inspired by the Stitch School, which aims to reconnect people to the craft.
Credit: Vogue
By Sam Rogers