McQueen Fall 2024 Ad Campaign

Review of McQueen Fall 2024 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Seán McGirr with Art Director Christopher Simmonds and Photographer Glen Luchford with models Awwal Adeoti, Libby Bennett, Sara Caballero, Nyajouk Gatdet, Reuben Larkin, Long Li, Bebe Parnell, Aryan Patel, Owen Ruppersburg, and Canlan Wang

The first campaign from the Seán McGirr era of McQueen has arrived, introducing us to the new creative director’s vision of artful rebelliousness informed by the streets of London. The campaign sees him partner with art director Christopher Simmonds and photographer Glen Luchford.

McQueen is a London-born brand and has always represented an idea of London that I’m deeply attached to. It has a very visceral kind of energy, driven by the eclectic cast of characters you see here. I want to bring that energy to life with the rigour and raw feeling that makes the city’s air hum, leaning deep into its tensions — something that feels poetic and primal; powerful and real. Something that comes from people. I want to bring light to that.”
– Seán McGirr, McQueen Creative Director

At once cinematic and surreal, refined and raw, the campaign film follows its cast of eclectic antiheroes through the underground scenes of East London. They stalk down flagstone streets, disappearing in back alleys to emerge amid indulgent soirées in dimly lit interiors. Austerity and opulence clash, just as McGirr’s collection explores an intersection of the animalistic and the elegant.

McGirr’s debut was polarizing, and not just because he had a lot to live up to in the legacies of Sarah Burton and Lee Alexander McQueen himself. The collection marked a daring departure from the previous era, yet we could still feel the brand’s identity in its mix of elegance, fantasy, and edge – though it was seen through McGirr’s unexpectedly experimental lens.

This campaign helps us to see the direction of this new chapter more clearly. It’s a smart move to begin with a conceptually simple yet confidently executed ode to the hard-edged personalities and styles of London, the brand’s home, and the collection does feel more at home in the world of the film than on the runway.

We were already cautiously intrigued by the new direction, but this first campaign has us feeling more excited about it. With a surprising and somewhat strange but solid foundation to build off of, we’re excited to see how McGirr will lean further into craft and narrative, and where he will take it.