On Tuesday evening (3 October) luxury fashion house Kering announced the much-anticipated appointment of a successor to Sarah Burton as creative director at Alexander McQueen. The top job was awarded to Seán McGirr, who joins from JW Anderson where he has been head of ready-to-wear since 2020, starting with menswear and adding womenswear to his responsibilities in soon after.
Despite plenty of rumours circulating about who may have been in the running for the role – including high-profile names such as previous Givenchy and Burberry creative director Riccardo Tisci, MBE-awarded designer Grace Wales Bonner and Turkish London-based Dilara Fındıkoğlu – the largely unknown McGirr will take up the helm at the established house as its second creative director since Lee McQueen’s passing in 2010.
The announcement sparked an instant backlash on social media. 1Granary, a global fashion education platform and creative network, shared an image of Kering-owned labels’ current creative directors – Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga, Sabato De Sarno at Gucci, Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent, Matthieu Blazy at Bottega Veneta and Norbert Stumpfl at Brioni – noting that with the new addition of McGirr, all of them are “white men”.
The Instagram post shared by 1Granary on October 3
This image was then re-shared by Diet Prada, a commentary Instagram account with 3.2m followers, renowned for highlighting what it perceives to be problems within the fashion industry.
Edward Buchanan, a Milan-based fashion and knitwear designer from Ohio who has worked for Bottega Veneta, Off-White, and founded his own luxury knitwear label Sansovino6, told Drapers: “This appointment was a confirmation of my lived experience [as a black man] working in an industry for 25 plus years where the highest and most powerful placements in the luxury space have always gone to white males. This has never changed.
“Yes, there have been periods where the decisions and appointments have been more inclusive, but this visual display of Kering’s six white male creative directors in a photo line-up for everyone to see struck a chord.”
Daniel Peters, founder of Fashion Minority Report, a career development platform that supports underrepresented talent in the fashion industry and creative sector, said: “It’s not to say that they [McGirr] are not talented, and capable of taking the helm at such an incredibly storied brand. It’s more, how are we at this point again in 2023? That decision doesn’t feel very balanced in terms of who you [companies like Kering] could bring to the table.”
He continued: “We [the fashion industry] have already had conversations about Pharrell Williams taking up that position [Williams was appointed creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear in February this year], and it’s one thing that it’s a black person in that role, but it’s a black man. Again, we’re putting more men into these positions – not to say that men can’t be talented and direct womenswear brands, but it does pose the question: why are we overlooking women for positions at such well known and established luxury brands? And outside of the conversation around gender, what else are we doing to make sure that there’s a different lens of diversity [such as race, ability, income background] that’s applied?”
Seán McGirr’s appointment was announced Tuesday 3 October
Jennifer Droguett is founder of Anciela, a sustainable brand that celebrates South American folklore and experimental tailoring, which showed at London Fashion Week for the first time for spring/summer 2024. She told Drapers that the problem does not lie with McGirr, but with the wider fashion industry: “Creative director appointments in big fashion conglomerates spark debate, because it reveals deeper power imbalance issues between fashion titans and the rest of the industry’s small players.
“Many of us POC [people of colour] designers decide to start our own business as a result of the lack of influence and opportunities. However, [even then] the power imbalance is still abysmal. Unfortunately, whether a brand makes it or not still depends on the financial support of these big conglomerates. At the end of the day, it is about money and influence. Seán McGirr’s appointment only touches the surface when it comes to equality and access to opportunities.”
However, not everyone believes McGirr’s appointment should be critiqued this way. Agnes Locret, director of international at luxury fashion recruitment agency, Mode Search, told Drapers: “I don’t think diversity can be something that fills a quota, if people are talented and they match your brand regardless of their background. I think it’s a bit harsh if anything [the reaction to McGirr’s appointment]. I don’t think any of them [Kering’s creative directors] would be in those positions if they didn’t deserve it.”
Locret said conversations about diversity were overshadowing those about McGirr’s fit with the McQueen brand. “He [Lee McQueen] hadn’t worked in a massive brand before launching his own label. He was really a newcomer. Sarah Burton only ever worked with McQueen before she became the creative director. I didn’t think they were going to take Nicolas Ghesquière [womenswear creative director at Louis Vuitton] or some other big name, and maybe that’s not something they want to do because the DNA of the brand is so strong.”
She did, however, note that McGirr has big shoes to fill for that very reason.
Alexander McQueen in 1996, at one of his infamously dramatic catwalk shows
Kathryn Hewitson, a London-based designer who runs independent label Pristine, which has stockists in Australia, Seoul, Japan and the UK, agrees that McGirr’s appointment is not “as simple” as a diversity issue. She told Drapers: “Some of my favourite clothes of all time have been created by white men – Gianni Versace, for example, had an incredible awareness of what would make a woman look and feel amazing.”
Instead, she said: “It does really feel like fashion is having an identity crisis, especially at the big houses who ultimately are prioritising short term gain over any real vision – that goes for female creative directors too – Virginie Viard at Chanel, Maria Grazia at Dior. LVMH and Kering may be making record sales numbers, but what happens when the respected legacy of the houses is replaced with people thinking of overpriced logo merch and cheap fabrications?”
She noted that this is perhaps the reason why “despite many imitators popping up in her absence, there is a rabid anticipation for Phoebe Philo’s return.” Her eponymous brand is set to launch on October 30.
Whilst McGirr may not be known publicly, his CV boasts stints at Dries van Noten, Burberry and Uniqlo, where he worked under former Hermès Christophe Lemaire. As a graduate from the prestigious Central Saint Martins, he also worked as a stylist in Tokyo and Paris. These experiences could well prove luxury fashion recruiter Locret’s assertions correct: that he is a relatively unknown talent on whom it is worth taking a chance.
And while the industry has seen plenty of newly appointed creative directors exit swiftly after joining established houses, with seemingly premature departures at Bally, Fiorucci and Chloe, most say it is too early to call how the Irish-born designer will interpret the heavy legacy of the McQueen brand, under a painstakingly close watch from fashion fans and industry insiders alike.
Sarah Burton has been much-praised in the 17 years she spent heading up the house, but with a new creative director comes a new vision and as, Peters commented hopefully: “It will be interesting to see the kind of team he [McKirr] builds while there”.
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