Seán McGirr is leaving McQueen after three years as Creative Director, following its return to London Fashion Week last month. The move comes amid a turnaround for the luxury brand, with the business closing half of its store estate by the end of the year.
Kering announced McGirr’s departure on Thursday and said new creative leadership would be named soon. The incoming designer will debut in London, where McQueen moved its shows for SS27.
“Our ambition is to establish a bold new direction for the house, building on its unique heritage of exceptional tailoring, uncompromising creativity and rebellion to reaffirm its position as one of the most innovative and culturally relevant voices in luxury,” said Kering CEO Luca de Meo.
Dublin-born McGirr joined the brand from JW Anderson in October 2023, succeeding Sarah Burton, who spent 26 years at the house, with 13 of them as Creative Director. He had previously worked at Dries Van Noten, Burberry and Uniqlo.
His final collection was shown at Lincoln’s Inn Chapel on 20 September, bringing McQueen back to London Fashion Week following years of showing in Paris.
The show brought together womenswear and menswear, moving between sacred and subcultural references. Smoked tulle, a palette drawn from religious portraiture and delicate floral motifs appeared alongside washed neon, leather harnesses and sharply controlled tailoring.
McQueen President and CEO Gianfranco D’Attis commented that McGirr’s “talent and passion have helped us reconnect Alexander McQueen with London, its culture, and its extraordinary creative energy”.
In September, D’Attis had confirmed that the brand’s move to the UK capital was permanent: “We are very much committed to showing in London from here on.”
Store count to halve by end of 2026
McGirr’s exit comes four months after D’Attis, the former Prada CEO, took charge of McQueen on 3 June.
The appointment followed a strategic review of McQueen’s global operations, with the aim of restoring profitability to the underperforming house, first announced by Kering CEO Luca de Meo in September 2025. The process put roughly a fifth of the brand’s head-office staff at risk. In March, it began redundancy proceedings in Italy that put about 30% of its local workforce at risk.
At Kering’s Capital Markets Day in Florence on 16 April, de Meo said McQueen would have 50% fewer stores by the end of 2026 than at the end of 2025, alongside rightsizing all functions. The house had closed 20 stores in the first half of the year, and relocated its flagship store on 27 Old Bond Street to a “new, premium location” on the street in the final quarter of 2026.”
The house had opened 135 stores worldwide, and sneakers at one point accounted for 80% of revenue.
Sales well below their peak
Income for the McQueen brand is not disclosed in Kering’s annual accounts but is classified in the “other houses” group, which, in the fourth quarter of 2025, reported a 3% increase in sales. These accounts noted, however, that “losses at Alexander McQueen weighed on profitability despite ongoing deep restructuring efforts”.
Saint Laurent, Kering’s second-largest house, has yet to name a successor to Anthony Vaccarello, who left after a decade as Creative Director.