Alexander McQueen shoots latest campaign at Welsh coastal castle
Leading fashion house Alexander McQueen has shot its latest promotional campaign in a ruined coastal castle in west Wales.
Sharing a striking sepia-tinged reel to their Instagram account, the prestigious London-based fashion company helmed by designer Seán McGirr wrote: “McQueen Spring Summer 2025 — Llansteffan Castle, Wales.
“A cast of characters, navigating castle, land and shore; bound by an enigmatic and animating force. Light, in the liminal hours, closing the distance between them.
“Exploring the bold and unrelenting spirit of the banshee — the folkloric figure rooted in the history of McQueen, and the Irish heritage of Creative Director Seán McGirr.
“Discover the new campaign. #McQueenSS25 via the link in bio.”
Llansteffan
Alexander McQueen’s creative director Seán McGirr has taken his second campaign for the house’s spring 2025 collection away from London, pulling up at Llansteffan Castle, Carmarthenshire.
In the images and short film shot by Glen Luchford and styled by Sarah Richardson, models were captured in movement around the castle, deserted land and Welsh shoreline.
McGirr said: “The banshee was a figure that was very present in my childhood imagination growing up in Ireland and she has recently taken on new meaning for me.”
“She embodies a sense of strident self-expression that resonates now; something freeing that drives connection with others.”
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The most recent campaign is not the first time McQueen has used Wales or Welsh themes in its designs, with previous head designer Sarah Burton, who took the helm following the death of Alexander McQueen, creating one of the fashion house’s most celebrated shows after a visit to St Ffagans to see its archives.
Burton’s Autumn/Winter 2020 offering, presented in Paris, began at St Ffagans National Museum of History, an institution devoted to chronicling the life, culture, and architecture of Welsh people.
There, she encountered the Wrexham Tailor’s Quilt, also known as The Wonder Quilt of Wrexham, an 1842 patchwork coverlet made from 4,525 pieces of coloured woollen cloth which took its creator – the master tailor James Williams – over ten years to complete.
Love spoon
Cited as one of the few surviving examples of the fashion among highly skilled tailors during the mid-19th century, the quilt depicted Biblical scenes, Welsh landmarks, motifs symbolising the four nations of the United Kingdom, as well as other countries. To Burton, this object represented “a narrative of someone’s life”.
Soundtracked by readings from the works of seminal Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, there were even references to the national flower of Wales, the daffodil, and the traditional ‘love spoon’ – the earliest example of which is also housed in the St Fagans National History Museum.
Looking to McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2004 Deliverance collection, which also incorporated quilts, as well as the collection of the Welsh quilts and blanket master Jen Jones, coats and dresses drew on traditional Welsh shawls and blankets, while checks borrowed from the colours and geometric motifs of traditional Welsh costume.
One of the final dresses was encrusted with a love-spoon embroidery (“a symbol of togetherness, of being there for others,” said Burton) in bullion, crystal, metal thread work, sequins and beads – paying homage to the exceptional technical ability of the house’s artisans.
The current head of the house, Seán McGirr also used Welsh language music from up and coming band, Tristwch y Fenywod during his first show, helping to put the English band who sing in Welsh on the map.
Read more about the collection here.
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