Source: Dave Benett / Getty
Naomi Campbell shed a tear while closing the Alexander McQueen Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 Paris Fashion Week runway show.
Despite her emotion, the veteran high fashion model was poised as she wiped away a tear during the show’s finale and creative director Sarah Burton’s last collection presentation for the British fashion house. Campbell’s emotional moment came as she walked down the non-linear runway in a silver corseted gown with sculpted hips. Details about the garment, shared by the brand, highlighted its “all-over glass bugle bead embroidery and looped bugle bead skirt.⣔
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In an Instagram post shared Oct. 1, Campbell praised Burton’s dedication to executing and developing Alexander McQueen’s brand identity for the past 13 years. The model also highlighted Burton’s connection with Lee Alexander McQueen, the brand’s founder and namesake, who the resigning creative director worked with for 14 years before she stepped up as the brand’s leader.
“What HONOR to close a chapter of excellence with Sarah Burton SS24… You are not only [an] amazing creative. You are an exceptional wife, mother and most loyal friend… with the purest heart,” wrote Campbell. “This is not goodbye. This is THE BEGINNING OF AN ERA [FOR] SARAH BURTON. I know that Lee was shining down on you proudly. You held it down for 27 years!!! I salute you and all the @alexandermcqueen team. Now I look forward to you DOING YOU â¤ï¸ðŸ˜˜.”
Burton’s last collection for Alexander McQueen is named Anatomy II.
The creative director said the Spring/Summer 2024 collection was, in many ways, a love letter to the brand’s ethos, team and founder.
“This collection is inspired by female anatomy, Queen Elizabeth I, the blood red rose and Magdalena Abakanowicz, a transgressive and powerfully creative artist who refused ever to compromise her vision,” said Burton. “The show is dedicated to the memory of Lee Alexander McQueen, whose wish was always to empower women, and to the passion, talent and loyalty of my team.”
Oct. 3, Alexander McQueen and its parent company, Kering, announced Seán McGirr as the brand’s latest creative director.
The Irish national and 2014 Central Saint Martins graduate has previous ties to brands including JW Anderson, Dries Van Noten, and Burberry. He also previously worked on Uniqlo’s creative team and with Vogue Hommes Japan.
Alexander McQueen CEO Gianfilippo Testa said, “We are delighted to welcome Seán McGirr as Creative Director. With his experience, personality, and creative energy, he will bring a powerful creative language to Alexander McQueen while building on its unique heritage.”
“Alexander McQueen is a house we are passionate about,” added Kerring Chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault. “We are confident that Seán McGirr will be able to pursue its journey with a new creative impetus. We look forward to opening this new chapter in the history of this unique brand.”
Lee founded his eponymous brand in London in 1992, and the brand joined Kerring less than a decade later.
Considered a generator of creativity and innovative design, the powerhouse fashion label became recognized for the masterful yet playful juxtapositions translated into its couture designs. Whether feminine versus masculine, light versus dark, organic versus artificial, or otherwise, the brand’s core remained its rebellious perspective and celebration of beauty.
Lee’s 2010 passing by suicide shocked the fashion world. He was only 40.
Campbell was candid in 2021 after walking the runway for Alexander McQueen for the first time since Lee’s death.
According to E! News, on Instagram, she wrote, “Mc QUEEN: The whole time my heart was in my chest, trying to stop the tears of an overwhelming emotion from streaming down my face. Felt you so strong, Lee, may have even glimpsed you in a form of a bird that flew above and around the entire show @alexandermcqueen SS22 #Sarah Burton and Team McQueen thank you #homesweethome.”
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