Paris Shopping: Alexander McQueen on rue Saint-Honoré

The much-missed McQueen earned his credentials as a fashion legend long before the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s posthumous blockbuster exhibition, Savage Beauty. In the wake of his untimely death, McQueen’s creative director and his successor, Sarah Burton, catapulted the label to instant global stardom by designing the world’s most hotly-anticipated dress – for Kate Middleton’s wedding to Prince William.

Last September’s opening of this lavish, 5,300-square-foot flagship boutique signaled a new phase. Decorated in creamy marble, chrome and lovely, contrasting dark grey and deep pink, it’s both elegantly minimal and gorgeously feminine. In Burton’s hands, the label’s exquisitely tailored flights of fancy have morphed into clothes of originality and wearability which play on the contrasts that have come to define its style: strength and fragility, ancient and modern, angular and fluid.

McQueen tropes – tartan, surprising silhouettes, flowing silks and plenty of lace – show up in a crimson strapless silk gown, a finely tiered faux-fur coat, a lingerie-inspired bustier trouser-suit and, of course, the ubiquitous ‘death’s head’, on everything from scarves and umbrella heads to jewellery.

The menswear collection can be found in the glamorous space downstairs, along with jewellery, accessories and a continuation of the women’s line.

Alexander McQueen, 372 rue Saint-Honoré, Paris 1st. Tel: +33 1 70 80 78 00

From France Today magazine