San Francisco socials have a well-documented history of donning avant-garde Alexander McQueen confections for galas. Deepa Pakianathan even wore an intricate McQueen pearl cage that encased her head at this year’s San Francisco Opera Gala, and numerous arts supporters have worn gowns from the line at galas for the San Francisco Ballet in the past few years. So it seems fitting that the city now has a McQueen boutique of its own. The new store concept conceived by current McQueen creative director Sarah Burton, and created by David Collins Studio, has all the gothic touches required of a line known for the bumster trouser and for referencing such cultural touchstones as Joan of Arc, the pillaging of Scotland, and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

Complete fall ’13 collections for both men and women line the shop and a few spring ’14 pieces are also on display inside the nearly 2700-square-foot space. There are two entrances and independent layouts for the house’s menswear and womenswear lines—a design that’s unique to McQueen stores in the U.S.  The menswear side of the boutique, delineated by deep red pile carpeting, is modeled after the brand’s Savile Row menswear flagship in London. Lighter shades of dove grey and lilac adorn the women’s space, and the shop’s duality is a trademark of the line itself. “It’s very McQueen to see something from a distance and think it’s one thing and then to look up close and discover something else,” says Burton. “It’s important to us that everything in the stores feels very precious.” References to signature elements of the line launched by London-based designer Lee McQueen in the early ’90s can be found throughout the shop. The disorder of smashed porcelain on the walls also evokes the intricate lace of McQueen gowns—the very looks that are sure to turn heads (and attract the city’s famed coterie of Instagramers) for years to come.

by Jennifer McCullum

 

Pictured: The new Alexander McQueen boutique in San Francisco.
Photo courtesy of Alexander McQueen

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