McQueen Autumn Winter 2025: Victorian-inspired Tailoring

Emerging from a portal of tungsten-tinged light in the Galerie de Géologie et de Minéralogie in Paris, the first looks to appear in the Autumn Winter 2025 show subverted distinctly Victorian silhouettes with McQueen's heritage of innovation.

Inventive tailoring techniques are at the foundation of the house, established by Lee Alexander McQueen’s training on London’s Savile Row, as well as references to distinctively Victorian codes and silhouettes which are seen throughout early McQueen collections. The result: Autumn Winter 2025’s sharpened, lean suiting with pinched shoulders and neatly cinched waists.

For the collection, a journey through Victorian London as described by Charles Dickens' 'Night Walks' (1860) is explored through jet-black tailoring referencing 19th century codes, cut from black wool silk and paired with dramatic high-neck collars, drawing on the 18th century Gothic.

The intricacy and beauty of historical techniques are reimagined through a 21st century lens, as corsetry structures are inverted, decorating the exterior of double wool cashmere coats for a striking, powerful silhouette.

In menswear, tailoring draws upon military garments, referencing the tradition of military twill fabrics in an innovative, exaggerated weave that adds contemporary tactility to suiting with modernist, shrunken proportions.