McQueen's Banshee for Spring/Summer 2025
“The banshee is rooted in McQueen history, but it’s also a story I grew up with and so it’s deeply personal to me – I remember my mother talking about it in Ireland, describing the cry of this lonely, ominous figure. To me, it represents something real and powerful today. The idea of someone who has feelings and is outspoken; someone who can be seen as a guiding force,” reveals Seán McGirr, creative director of the British house.
For the McQueen Spring/Summer 2025 show, creative director Seán McGirr drew inspiration from the figure of the banshee—a supernatural female creature from Irish Celtic mythology, considered a sorceress or messenger from the Otherworld, often referred to as the "woman who howls funeral chants."
To represent it, the designer summons up silhouettes that are a bit mystical, revealed while the catwalk is surrounded by shadows, plunged into a kind of barely gloomy fog. We find a sharp and twisted suit that subverts the traditions of British costume; translucent white silk chiffon, hand-washed and manipulated into sunburst pleats; silk creponne, gossamer and gathered cut in wool gabardine; silk chiffon and organza m washed, shredded, massaged; spiderweb lace sewn by hand, entangled in finely brushed silk that gives the illusion of coming undone; a twisted suit , as if it were closed; a pinched and raised shoulder; classic checks; all declined in a palette of ivory, silver gray and jet black, sometimes punctuated by twilight hues — flamboyant yellow and orange.
