Seán McGirr

Seán McGirr is an Irish fashion designer, born in Dublin in 1988. He completed the MA Fashion course at Central Saint Martins in 2014 under Louise Wilson, then worked for Uniqlo in Tokyo and Paris, Dries Van Noten in Antwerp and Burberry. He joined JW Anderson in 2020 as head of menswear and later led the label’s women’s and men’s ready-to-wear.

Alexander McQueen announced McGirr as creative director on 3 October 2023, succeeding Sarah Burton. He began in the role in December 2023, presented his first collection in Paris in March 2024 and continued through the house’s Autumn/Winter 2026 collection, his fifth ready-to-wear season for McQueen.

McGirr’s McQueen collections repeatedly combine close, elongated tailoring with volumes that twist, flare or collapse around the body. Narrow jackets, low-rise trousers, corsetry and curved seams recur beside laminated jersey, distressed knits and body-led draping. The consistent method is construction through contrast: a controlled line is interrupted by movement, exposure or an unstable surface.

He works from selected house techniques and archive references, then builds contemporary characters through casting, music and styling. Across these collections, he has increasingly designed directly on the body and explored the difference between public performance and private self-presentation. The resulting clothes are physical and character-led, with archive research serving the construction of new silhouettes and personas.