Sarah Burton leaves Alexander McQueen: what future for the house of the Kering group?

Before his tragic death in 2010, Lee Alexander McQueen had worked side by side with Sarah Burton for years, personally anointing her to take over as his successor. This is what he did brilliantly, and perhaps one. a little too academically according to the most critics, for thirteen years. As an intern to the right-hand man of the founder of the fashion house, Sarah Burton ensured the artistic direction of Alexander McQueen from 2010 to 2023 in total discretion, letting her collections act as highlights, remaining increasingly distant from the big egos of the brand. fashion circus and average.

Why Sarah Burton leaves Alexander McQueen

As she prepares to present her Alexander McQueen Spring-Summer 2024 opus during Paris Fashion Week on Saturday 30 September 2023 at 6.30pm, this will therefore be Sarah Burton’s latest collection for the house, which promises to be moving and collectible. No one knows why this discreet person is leaving office, but speculation is already circulating about where she will go next, and above all who will replace her.

By the way, what is the story of the Alexander McQueen house left by Sarah Burton?

To understand why expectations were so high and unparalleled within this house now owned by the Kering group, we must look back at its history.

Who was Lee Alexander McQueen?

It all begins with Lee Alexander McQueen (born 17 March 1969 in London and died 11 February 2010 in Mayfair), the son of proletarian parents who grew up in a working-class neighborhood shaken by family turbulence. To channel himself, he undertook an internship at Tailors Row, which fascinated him and made him want to study fashion, which he did at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. In 1992 he presented his graduate collection inspired by Jack the Ripper (and entitled Jack the Ripper haunts his victims), where we already find all the codes that will determine its success: sharp tailoring at the service of horrible and melancholic inspirations. He immediately caught the attention of fashion journalist Isabella Blow who bought everything from him, helping him finance the creation of his own brand with increasingly bold and dark collections.

He who spent his time saying that he wanted people to be afraid of the women he dressed, is sometimes inspired by films like Taxi driver, Birds, Hungerhistorical events sometimes tragic like his work Highland rape, about English violence against Scotland, particularly during the Jacobite risings and the cleansing of the Highlands in the 18th century. This controversial collection also earned him the appointment as artistic director of Givenchy (owned by the LVMH group) in 1996, which overworked him and exacerbated his mental health problems, including addictions.

In 2000 he sensationally signed an agreement with the Gucci group (now Kering) to dedicate himself exclusively to his own house, but this was accompanied by new commercial pressures (more leather goods, sunglasses, men’s clothing from 2004, and the distribution of the McQ brand from 2006) . While we could have read in his collections a crescendo in a form of horror poetics signs of anguish, he says goodbye at the end of the creative summit of him which is Plato’s Atlantis (first parade broadcast in live broadcast of history) in October 2009 before committing suicide, mainly because he was too affected by his mother’s death.

In 2010 it was his right-hand woman, Sarah Burton, who had joined the house as an intern years earlier, who succeeded him. Even if he handles their codes perfectly (animal print inspirations, increasingly sharp tailoring and an aesthetic that is as punk as it is melancholy), and signs media highlights (such as Kate Middleton’s wedding dress) and commercial successes (such as platform sneakers oversized), it seems like an impossible mission to replace such a tortured poet. So it was after spending 27 years there, 13 of them as district attorney, that she retired.

Who will replace Sarah Burton as artistic director of Alexander McQueen?

Except that the company belongs to the Kering group which has every interest in perpetuating the brand that sells sneakers like hotcakes, which suggests that Sarah Burton will soon be replaced. Note that the CEO of this luxury group François-Henri Pinault is making several strategic changes, particularly in the face of slowing performance at Gucci (whose new DA Sabato De Sarno will present his highly anticipated first collection on September 22 2023), as well as attempting to obtain Valentino who has just acquired the majority of the Creative Artists Agency.

Voices are already whispering the names of Riccardo Tisci (CEO of Givenchy from 2005 to 2017, then of Burberry from 2018 to 2022), of Roberto Wu (young designer born in Hong Kong, based in London where he founded his own brand in 2014) and Dilara Findikoglu (young Turkish-British designer who has only been showing since September 2019).