Alexander McQueen Collaborates With Arthouse Filmmaker Jonathan Glazer for SS21

The Spring/Summer 2021 season has seen fashion brands reaching for new ways to present their collections, after runway shows were made impossible by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, we’ve seen everything from live-streams to video games.

Alexander McQueen has now launched its own contribution to the season, with a short film to showcase its SS21 collection. The film was made in collaboration with the British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, best known for his 2013 arthouse horror Under the Skin.

The abstract film, titled First Light, features a host of models mudlarking across the banks of the River Thames at dawn. The menswear presented largely cleaves to the codes that creative director Sarah Burton has established at the brand: leather jackets, trench coats, and spliced-together tailoring feature heavily.

Glazer’s work – particularly Under the Skin, which featured Scarlett Johansson as a man-consuming alien — has become a recurring reference point for fashion designers. Raf Simons used the film’s score to soundtrack two of his shows, for SS20 and SS15.

Among the other collections launched this week, Saint Laurent and Givenchy have released their latest offerings.