Seán McGirr leaves McQueen after three years
Kering confirmed the Irish designer's exit on 15 October. His successor will be named soon and is set to debut in London.
Photo: Pavel Danilyuk / Pexels (Pexels License). Stock photo used for illustration; it is not from the event or brand in this story.
Seán McGirr is stepping down as creative director of Alexander McQueen. The house and its owner Kering announced the news on Thursday 15 October 2026, three years after his appointment, and said new creative leadership would be announced soon.
Kering chief executive Luca de Meo thanked the designer and said the group wants "a bold new direction for the house", built on McQueen's tailoring, creativity and rebellious spirit.
The road to McQueen
McGirr, born in Dublin, took over from Sarah Burton in October 2023. He came from JW Anderson. For Belgian readers, there is a local link: WWD and Vogue both note that he earlier designed womenswear at Dries Van Noten, and his CV also includes Burberry and Uniqlo.
According to Vogue, his debut show, staged in a warehouse outside Paris, met with scepticism: it strayed far from Burton's work, with a younger, less tailored silhouette. Vogue Runway's Nicole Phelps found his second collection more cohesive. For spring 2027 he brought the house back to the London schedule for the first time in 25 years, as HERO notes, with a dark show in the undercroft of Lincoln's Inn Chapel. WWD adds that jeweller Shaun Leane, a former collaborator of Lee McQueen, made runway pieces for the brand again for the first time in 16 years.
A brand in the middle of a reset
The exit comes during a sharp restructuring. Vogue reports job cuts this year, a new CEO, Gianfranco D'Attis, since June, and a plan to halve the number of stores by the end of 2026. According to WWD, the brand had expanded to 135 stores and at one point relied on sneakers for 80 percent of its revenue.
Why it matters
This is the second big creative change at Kering in a week, after Anthony Vaccarello left Saint Laurent. Vogue reports that McQueen's next designer will debut in London. If you love the house's sharp shoulders, our guide to the new suit shows how to wear strong tailoring now.
Source
Original reporting: Kering press release.
Also reported by: Vogue, WWD, BoF, HERO.
This is a short summary in our own words. Names and facts are as reported by the sources above; Wardrobe Compass has no commercial relationship with the brands mentioned.
