When you’re feeling a slight sense of deja vu, that’s comprehensible. Yes, the Alexander McQueen fall 2022 menswear lookbook did drop just five days ago, and yes, the spring 2023 lookbook is out today. Over the past few pandemic years, even the very best of us have felt like time has collapsed in on itself, nevertheless it’s still a remarkably quick back-to-back. (The rationale, it’s price noting, is to realign the home’s menswear offering with the broader schedule following previous, pandemic-related disruptions.)

Despite the marginally disorientating timing, Sarah Burton’s vision for the McQueen man this season was as richly realized as ever, with the designer noting that after the joys of her Recent York show in March, she felt inclined to dial things back somewhat. And if that collection was planted solidly within the earth—packed because it was with mushroom motifs, hempy frayed knits, and a palette of burnt oranges and molten reds—here, Burton looked to the skies. The gathering’s muted palette featured twilight shades of dusty pinks and blues, while references to the cosmos and the night sky abounded; essentially the most arresting details being sequins and crystals embroidered to form comets and astral patterns across the lapels of jackets, and in a very ravishing final look, covering your complete back of a coat.

It wouldn’t be a McQueen collection, nevertheless, and not using a subversive edge. Accessories got here punctured with metal eyelets, while cable knits and cardigans were artfully slashed down the perimeters, the previous seamed back along with silver rings. A series of blazers with cut-out details and harnesses—some in leather, others decorated with crystals—added a quietly playful touch of kink. (That each one of those harnesses were detachable felt like a very fun detail: you possibly can wear it for an evening on the opera, before cinching yourself into the leather straps to hit up a less salubrious destination afterwards.)

Still, as all the time with Burton’s work, it’s the sheer technical mastery of it that felt most intoxicating. Tuxedo jackets cut from black grain de poudre and asymmetric waistcoats in wool gabardine fit so impeccably you’ll be able to’t help but reach out and touch them. Even when in additional quotidian fabrics, like a denim pullover shirt or a patched bomber jacket in lilac, these are clothes with palpably luxurious heft. Sarcastically, that it ought to be released so near the previous collection only underscores that regardless of the season—and regardless of what gently disruptive tweaks she brings to the combination—the fantastic thing about Burton’s menswear lies in its timelessness.

BY LIAM HESS
VOGUE
July 1, 2022

Sound:
Fractions – Cold