McQueen FW25 Dresses the Decadent Dandy
“To me, dandyism is the ultimate act of adornment; deeply personal, playful and transgressive,” Sean McGirr said of his third go-round at the House’s helm.
To the strums of 19th-century strings and hypnotic arpeggios by French musician Ange Halliwell, designer Sean McGirr’s latest McQueen manifesto—one riffing on dandyism’s refined conduct and the Victorian Gothic’s raw opulence—took form at Paris Fashion Week this weekend. At the show space, a mirrored installation by Tom Scutt acted as a portal for McGirr’s Fall/Winter 2025 personas, many of whom cut through Victorian architecture like poised characters from Charles Dickens’s 1860 essay Night Walks (a text which appeared on the fashioner’s moodboard) — but built for the 21st century.
“To me, dandyism is the ultimate act of adornment; deeply personal, playful and transgressive,” said McGirr of his third go-round at the helm of the historic House. “It raises questions of character and identity, idealism and gender. I wanted to explore the enduring relevance of the dandy’s radical spirit in our modern world.”
On the runway, McGirr highlighted the strain between the dandy’s boastfulness and the punk’s anonymity: gold bullion embroidered cloaks debuted in the same breath as crystalized masks, as did sculptural black hats by Philip Treacy, which artfully concealed their wearers. Amid said tension, though, the throughline was a strong sense of pride. Punctuated by book-pleated collars, pinched Victorian shoulders, rich jacquard, form-flooding shearlings and studded sunflower enbroideries, all of McQueen’s new-age looks were confident in form.
In the end, it was clear how Oscar Wilde’s words, stamped neatly on the collection’s show notes, guided the line: “‘Know thyself’ was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, ‘Be thyself’ shall be written.” McGirr’s McQueen is self-assured.
See McQueen’s Fall/Winter 2025 collection in the gallery above, and stay tuned to Hypebeast for more Paris Fashion Week coverage.
