Alexander McQueen Returns To London Fashion Week With A Star Performance

Just magical.

It’s been six years since London’s original showman, Lee Alexander McQueen, passed away and in those six years creative director Sarah Burton has done a tremendous job of moving his name securely into the future.

Tonight’s show, Burton's last before maternity leave and the first on home soil since 2000, was a testament to both the designer’s talent and to all that is magical about the name McQueen, as the brand took over London’s Royal Horticultural Society and left us all seeing stars with a glittering collection.

These are the moments everyone is talking about... The Dresses Were Exquisite This was London Fashion Week’s hottest ticket, a homecoming of sorts, and the clothes more than delivered. From the sheer capes embellished with a thousand moon and star shapes to the expertly fitted, Victoriana ruffle minidresses in the softest shades of pink, every look came loaded with detail and craftsmanship.

See all the looks in the gallery above.

We’ve Found The Ultimate Duvet Coat People, our duvet dressing goals have just been realised. McQueen’s couture coats were loaded with intricate flower embroideries, nipped and tucked to create regal, gown-like silhouettes. We will be trying to recreate such theatre with our own duvets at home tonight.

The Hair Was Loaded With Pearls And Safety Pins ‘I have trays and trays of jewellery and I’m just bunging it in the hair,’ said Guido Palau, Redken’s Global Creative Director backstage before the show. FYI, he’s being extremely modest here. Before getting on to the jewellery, Guido and his team applied copious amounts of Redken Wind Blown 05 and Redken Volume Guts 10 to create as much texture as possible. He brushed it through and twisted it up into a wrap and secured. Then, one-by-one, (38 girls in all) he styled each model in his thrown-together jewellery styling corner. ‘It’s taking a lot longer than I thought it would but I really want to finish each look myself,’ he explained. Any method to the madness? ‘Generally the clunkier the jewellery the better. McQueen has always been known as a slightly punky brand so we’ve of course a few safety pins in the mix.’

The Make-Up Was All About Moonlight Make-up artist Lucia Pieroni told a story of moonlit garden walks and unicorns with luminous skin. She achieved the sooty smudgy eyes with RMS Eye Polish in Karma (an intense sparkly almost black cream) and MAC Technakohl Liner in Graphblack which she pressed into the lash line, and onto the lashes, and smudged in with a tiny amount of Egyptian Magic. To summarise, Pieroni told us; ‘It’s surreal, beautiful, yummy, fabulous – there’s an element of fantasy to the whole thing.’ She’s not wrong about that now, is she?