Review of McQueen Fall 2025 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Christopher Simmonds with Photographer/Director Glen Luchford with models Alex Consani, Athiec Geng, Chu Wong, Libby Taverner
Seán McGirr’s sophomore campaign for McQueen is a raw and riveting study in tension—between repression and rupture, form and feeling, tradition and the thrill of transgression. Filmed and photographed by Glen Luchford, the campaign channels the legacy of 19th-century iconoclasts through a strikingly contemporary lens, unspooling a fever dream of contorted elegance and ecstatic motion.
Set against the eerie stillness of a shadowed white box, the visuals unfold in pulses of choreographed abandon. Figures writhe, crawl, bend, and lash out—bodies pushed not toward polish but to the edge of instinct. It’s not about posing; it’s about possession. A haunting force seems to move through the models—among them, Alex Consani, Athiec Geng, and Chu Wong—each shape shifting with a wild, almost animalistic autonomy.
Luchford’s lens captures motion in a painterly blur, evoking the expressionist experiments of Francis Bacon or Egon Schiele. The twisting limbs and elongated shadows recall Bacon’s portraits of distorted humanity, while the ghosted movement references early photographic studies of dance by Eadweard Muybridge. There is a physical intensity that’s more performance art than fashion editorial, one that summons the legacy of Pina Bausch and Butoh—where bodies speak without words, and every gesture aches with subtext.
McGirr cites “the uncompromising self-expression of independent thinkers” as the seed of the collection, naming Oscar Wilde, Vesta Tilley, and Romaine Brooks as his muses. Their presence is felt not just in the stylings—tailcoats, lace, and leather sharpened with a Victorian edge—but in the underlying spirit: one that questions gender, revels in theatricality, and asserts identity through spectacle.
The collection was rooted in the uncompromising self-expression of independent thinkers, exploring the tension between tradition and transgression,” McGirr says. “Their spirit of progressivism feels pertinent now, inherent in modern questions of character, identity, idealism and gender.”
Indeed, the campaign doesn’t sell clothing so much as it animates it. Silk georgette undulates like water; a storm of red shearling engulfs the frame; black lace clings to the body like smoke. Garments don’t dress the models—they envelop, bind, provoke, and release them. In this way, the clothes become second skin and second voice.
The creative direction from Christopher Simmonds keeps the set austere, allowing Luchford’s light and shadow play to take precedence. Cinematically stark, the mise-en-scène heightens the feeling that these aren’t fashion models at all but specters—caught mid-exorcism, mid-transformation.
Importantly, McGirr’s vision seems less concerned with rebranding McQueen than with reigniting its emotional power. In a luxury landscape increasingly obsessed with polish and commercial safety, this campaign feels unafraid to be disorienting. It doesn’t beg to be liked. Instead, it dares you to feel—viscerally.
It’s a return to fashion’s potential as provocation, with a clear McQueen lineage—restless, romantic, and rigorously uncompromising.
Alexander McQueen Creative Director | Seán McGirr
Creative Director | Christopher Simmonds
Photographer/Director | Glen Luchford
Models | Alex Consani, Athiec Geng, Chu Wong, Libby Taverner
Stylist | Sarah Richardson
Hair | Gary Gill
Makeup | Daniel Sallstrom
Manicurist | Ama Quashie
Casting Director | Julia Lange
Set Designer | Max Bellhouse
Choreographer | Benoit Swan Pouffer
Production | Farago Projects
Music | ‘Overcome’ by Tricky feat. Martina Topley-Bird, courtesy of Island Records
Written by | Adrian Nicholas Matthew Thaws, Marcella Levy, Martina Gillian Topley-Bird, Siobhan Maire Deirdre Fahey
Published by | Universal/Island Music Ltd, Chester Music Ltd t/as Campbell Connelly & Co a part of Wise Music Group and Warner Chappell Music Ltd