Alexander McQueen at Paris Fashion Week 2019: Inside Sarah Burton's AW19 Collection

The Creative Director headed back to her British routes when designing the Autumn/Winter collection for Alexander McQueen.

Alexander McQueen AW19 PW19 PFW19 lancaster rose dress

Alexander McQueen AW19 collection at Paris Fashion Week

Although the show unfolded within the Lycée Carnot in Paris, the heart of Alexander McQueen‘s AW19 collection was located in the North of England.

When conceptualising the show for Paris Fashion Week, Creative Director Sarah Burton took her designers back to the UK for inspiration.

And one of the garments that most explicitly referenced this – the silk taffeta dress of a rose in full bloom that represented the Red Rose of Lancaster – reflected the aesthetics of the collection at large.

But as the fashion house found its own way to tap into the floral trend and toughen up the feminine design, not every item was as theatrical as the deep red gown above.

Some of the more wearable items that played into the same theme included a white denim dress with a sweetheart necklace and open bloom flower detail at the shoulder and a black and red one-piece that mixed cuts and fabrics as chaotically as colour.

Throughout the show, feminine florals were toughened up with touches such as bulky boots, choker necklaces and studs and earrings that crawled all the way up models’ ears.

On her inspiration, Burton said: “I went home for this collection, back to where I grew up in the North of England, surrounded by mill towns and wild countryside.

“I took my team to those mills, to a landscape that I remember from my childhood. The heart of the collection is inspired by the bolts of cloth we saw woven both by man and machine.”