The creative partnership between Alexander McQueen and the studio of the late, great David Collins has produced some of the more dramatic and intriguing of recent retail spaces, including the McQueen menswear store on Savile Row (opens in new tab) and the McQ store on Dover Street. And now the Bond Street womenswear flagship has just reopened after a redesign by Collins' studio.
The 250 square metre, two-storey store has been given the baroque bespoke panelling that is a signature of the new store designs. Flora and fauna, including shells, wings, cactus flowers and tangled leaves, are everywhere in the moulded plaster panels, while tiny skulls and grimacing gargoyles add a gothic twist to the bucolic splendour.
This twin fascination with the natural world and the gothic imagination continues in furniture, with gazelle hooves and monster claws for feet. Materials meanwhile are suitably splendid, with white and grey book matched marble and deep pile carpets at floor level, gilded silver and gold mirrors and black lacquer and aged brass shelving and hanging rails.
'It's very McQueen to see something from a distance and think it's one thing and then look up close and discover something else,' says Alexander McQueen creative director Sarah Burton of the flagship redesign. 'It's important that everything in the stores feels very precious.'
Inside, the store has been given the baroque bespoke panelling that is a signature of the updated store concept. Flora and fauna, are everywhere in the moulded plaster panels, while miniature skulls and gargoyles add a gothic twist to the bucolic splendour
-
Gilbert & George on their new art centre in east London: ‘We all want to live forever, don’t we?’As the Gilbert & George Centre prepares to open on 1 April 2023, we interview the artist duo on their vision for the space, located in the heart of London’s east end and designed by SIRS Architects
-
Marimekko taps Sabine Finkenauer for a graphic tableware and textiles collection
Salone del Mobile 2023: the Finnish design house’s latest Artist Series in collaboration with Sabine Finkenauer will be on show in Brera’s Galleria II Milione
-
A modern barnhouse makes a faceted form on an exposed site in Southern Chile
Estudio Diagonal’s barnhouse project, Ridge House, is a stripped back private home that uses everyday materials and simple geometry to maximise interior space
-
Alexander McQueen announces education initiative in east London
Alexander McQueen will financially and creatively support A Team Arts Education, a community organisation based in London’s Tower Hamlets that works to encourage young people to enter the arts
-
Alexander McQueen and Smiljan Radic erect bubble on London skyline
‘I am interested in immersing myself in the environment in which we live and work, in London, and in the elements as we experience them each day,' says creative director Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen’s homecoming S/S 2022 womenswear show
-
Handbag brands: how to invest in a classic this autumn
Handbag designers propose streamlined shapes which are proportioned to perfection
-
The tailored tuxedo brings precision to party wear
Elevate your evening look with a tailored two piece by Alexander McQueen, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Versace
-
A monumental Dior retrospective opens at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris
-
The frame game: an Italian startup is focused on transforming the fashion eyewear business
-
Alexander McQueen teams up with David Collins Studio for its Paris flagship
-
Inside the haunting splendour that is Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty at London’s V&A
