It's been 25 years since Lee McQueen decided to depart London — his home city — and begin to show in Paris. It was 2001 when Kering invested in Alexander McQueen, and so the house moved to the city of love to begin a long affair with the Paris show schedule. But this year, for Spring/Summer 2027, Seán McGirr reunited the house with its home.

There is a rawness about London that Paris doesn't possess. A sense of rebellion in design that roots itself in the McQueen identity. London is, after all, the birthplace of punk, of anti-establishment, and of the generation of designers that turned fashion on its axis, Lee McQueen chief amongst them.

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So in the darkened halls of Lincoln's Inn Chapel in London yesterday, McGirr returned McQueen to all it formerly knew while pushing it into the present. The Baptism Of Christ by Piero Della Francesca is a work that has inspired the designer for much of his career, and was evident here in the first portion of the show, where reflective satin was draped across the body and secured with harnesses by Shaun Leane, an original collaborator of McQueen's, the fluid gowns intercepted by something hard and almost biblical complemented the silhouettes of suiting, which resembled curled wings and piqued shoulders, shapes that were worn with hairstyles gelled into demonic horns giving it all a very rebellious feel.

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Then there was the note of rave culture, intrinsic to London's underground scene. Mesh, perforated leather, watercolor-stained sheer fabric was corseted and offered in clingy ruched mini dresses and shiny party looks with pannier skirts and frayed, asymmetric hems paired with ultra-high patent platforms to incorporate a contemporary feeling into the collection. But I especially loved the medieval, renaissance-like pieces that sliced through with romantic imagery, like a chainmail dress of glittering skulls or a silver satin corset that Paloma Elsesser wore to resemble a metal breastplate that was draped with black crepe de chine. Towards the end, it was a great voluminous white gown that looked as though the front had been gathered by a ghost to reveal the models legs, which put the glossy platform shoes with ankle straps and brass rings that looked like 15th century torture accessories.

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The world of McQueen has always been off-beat and a little demonic—It's what attracted some of his greatest admirers and harshest critics. McQueen, as a house, has a legacy that doesn't curl away from darkness, rather unfurls towards it. For Spring/Summer 2027, McGirr reached out and grabbed it.

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