What does British culture look like? To Sean McGirr, the answer is a contradiction, a mixture of pomp and ceremony with unrefined revelry. Set within the haunting vaults of Lincoln’s Inn Chapel — a place that felt ironically reminiscent of Paris’ catacombs — it was hard to miss the hallmarks of McGirr’s McQueen. Meticulous tailoring and silver skull hardware, made in collaboration with astute jeweller and friend-of-the-house Sean Leane, worked in tandem with a newer beat of free-flowing satin and (semi)wearable heels. Horned models wearing cocooned-shoulder blazers took to the runway in what felt like some angels’ and devils’ type role-play, the inspiration of which came from Piero della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ, a painting which McGirr saw in London’s National Gallery soon after he moved to the city when he was sixteen. In his house’s first return to London for a quarter of a century, the Irish designer was triumphant as he set out on a Salinger-like exploration of identity: identity of self, of country and, of course, the identity of McQueen.
