McQueen to return to London Fashion Week in September
The British fashion house is set to show at home for the first time in 25 years
McQueen, the British high fashion house founded in London by Alexander McQueen in 1992, has announced it will return to London Fashion Week this September. The brand will show its SS27 collection on Sunday 20 September, marking the first time it has shown on homesoil since moving to the Paris Fashion Week schedule in 2001.
The show will also mark current creative director Seán McGirr’s first show in London at the helm of the brand. “London has always been at the heart of McQueen; there’s a uniquely visceral energy to the city that runs throughout the house’s history and continues to inspire everything we do today,” says McGirr. “Returning to London Fashion Week allows us to deeply engage with that spirit and the creative community that defines both London and this house.”
SS27 will be McGirr’s fifth ready-to-wear collection for McQueen and is expected to continue the designer’s ongoing deep dive into the wealth of the McQueen archive, reinterpreting the elegant tailoring, dark romanticism, and sophisticated occasionwear that have been signatures of the brand since its foundation.
“Bringing McQueen back to London Fashion Week is a meaningful moment for the house,” adds Gianfranco d’Attis, CEO of McQueen. “London is where our story began and remains central to our identity. We are proud to reaffirm our commitment to the British Fashion Council and to the city’s extraordinary creative ecosystem, while continuing to build on McQueen’s heritage and shape its future.”
Despite being a long-term fixture on the Paris Fashion Week calendar, London has remained integral to the brand’s identity, and McQueen has held a number of standalone events in the capital outside of the main London Fashion Week schedule in the intervening years. The last of these, hosted under former creative director Sarah Burton, took place in 2022 at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich and saw McQueen present its SS23 collection in a giant glass dome.
The brand has not confirmed whether this new move to London will also be a one-off event or if this represents a more permanent move back to the capital. Either way, it comes as a major boon to London Fashion Week, which in recent years has faced criticism for its lack of global tentpole names – and offers proof of concept for a turnaround plan for London Fashion devised by British Fashion Council CEO, Laura Weir.
"One of my earliest ambitions as CEO of the British Fashion Council has been to see Alexander McQueen return home to London Fashion Week,” says Weir. “Few have shaped the global fashion landscape with the same force, imagination and cultural impact, and now is the time to welcome the brand back to its London roots. McQueen’s return is a statement of confidence in British creativity at its most fearless and distinctive. We are proud to welcome the house back to the official schedule and look forward to building an ambitious and meaningful partnership across the seasons ahead."
