This article originally appeared on Vogue Business.
For me, its about letting the light in.
Sean McGirr is in the midst of final fittings in Paris.
Photo: Pierre-Ange Carlotti
His debut show forAlexander McQueenis in four days time.
But upstairs, where McGirr is at work, all is calm.
Reference boards stand against one wall.
The Spring 1995 Lee Alexander McQueen ‘Birds’ collection that gave Seán McGirr much of his inspiration.
Rows of shoes and boots march across the shelves, including distinctive clodhoppers modelled after horse hooves.
What I like about it is that its all very simple, but its slightly twisted.
Its a jacket with a more stacked shoulder, or the lapel goes up a little too high.
The Spring 1995 Lee Alexander McQueen ‘Birds’ collection that gave Seán McGirr much of his inspiration.
Its the idea of making beautiful tailoring and then running a tyre over it to make something new.
Taking something and twisting it and crushing it and seeing what happens.
The Spring 1995 Lee Alexander McQueen Birds collection that gave Sean McGirr much of his inspiration.
The Spring 1995 Lee Alexander McQueen ‘Birds’ collection that gave Seán McGirr much of his inspiration.
McGirrs job, of course, is to bring newness to Alexander McQueen.
To do so, hell inject his millennial point of view.
For me, it has to have a youthful energy.
I want that to be represented.
Also, It has to provoke a reaction; thats the DNA of the brand.
McQueen is also about aggression, but playful aggression.
Will there be bumsters?
The hip-slung, ass crack-revealing pants McQueen was notorious for have been turning up on other runways this year.
But McGirr isnt doing anything that literal.
Instead, he says he graded up a pair from the archives 10 times.
For me, this is a modern version.
Theyre still super, super low, but theyre loose, and you wear them in a cool way.
The new McQueen, he says, shouldnt feel too hard to live in.
Theres a lot of opportunity in that, especially for someone as confident as McGirr.
Ive always had a lot of conviction in what Ive done, he says.
I was 20… it was my formative year, and those two shows instilled a lot of inspiration.
Platos Atlantis was just very bold, with such a strong message.
It really was in the fabric.
I wasnt really around fashion; what introduced me to it were films, he says.
His dad was into Tarantino and showed himReservoir DogsandPulp Fiction.
These characters who were on the fringes, the outsiders, slightly dangerous I thought they were really cool.
Thats why I love McQueen so much because theres always a message in the clothes, he says.
It was his grandmother, a window dresser in the 50s and 60s, who introduced him to sewing.
He started buying vintage clothes and reworking them and tailored his school uniform.
This idea of improvisation I wanted to say something by how something fits.
That was something that really appealed to me.
I experienced something kind of homophobic.
Some of the staff were a bit rude to me because they knew I was gay.
I called my mum, she was like, Get out of there.
So I went to a gay bar that night and started working there.
It was really inspiring to live in Japan, he says.
Its such a different culture, but theyre island people like Irish people.
Were both a bit weird.
Were all just excited to do something new.
I think Im quite open with creative people, and I can be flexible.
Theyre getting into what I like, and Im trying to see what theyre really skilled at.
He swims, and in the run-up to the show, hes been practising yoga.
McGirr is respectful of Burton.
And his response to the consternation his arrival stirred up seems aligned with his collaborative, getting-his-hands-dirty approach.
Obviously, he says, its very complex.
But to be honest, Im really happy and really proud that my announcement sparked this discussion about diversity.
Ive worked around the world, and Ive always noticed that diversity breeds creativity.
I think its really important to keep that conversation going.
It was sort of a play on the Gothic traditions of the house, he says.
I wanted to do something that was very raw a little bit playful, a little bit aggressive.
It divided people a bit.
I think thats cool, I think its important.
Lee McQueen said in the 90s, Id rather have people hate it than not feel anything.
I think McQueen is a little bit like that.
A provocateur by nature, McQueen was comfortable with darkness but dont expect the same from McGirr.
Fashion should really excite people, but in an optimistic way, he says.
Im not really into sadness or gloominess.
To be honest, I think the worlds mental health is super low.
To maintain his own sense of balance, he removed his profile from Instagram last year.
I think its healthier for me to stay off it.
He also does analysis once a week.
His analyst is Jungian, not Freudian, he points out.
Im quite interested in the human mind.
How we work, our psyche, why we come to things.
You know, we live in a world thats very reactive now.
Its always interesting to kind of think a bit deeper, to understand where things actually come from.
Where hes taking us tonight is Olympiad, a former wholesale food market in the heart of Pariss Chinatown.
In the lead-up to the show, McGirr was pure emotion.
I think McQueen was the greatest designer that ever lived, really.
So, its exciting; Im just excited for the future.
