McQ have released the lookbook for their SS16 collection as well as an extended video by Sharna Osborne.

It’s a typically McQueenian mix of louche 70s sexiness, tailored androgyny and post-punk irreverence for McQ’s SS16 collection. They have released a lookbook shot by Lea Colombo (a South African who, at only 19 years old, is making waves in Paris) for the line, which is heavily influenced by 80s club culture but also firmly planted in contemporary terrain.

The collection plays with contrasts, both from look-to-look and within ensembles: oversized (sometimes double breasted) tailored pieces and flowing palazzo pants are adorned with  chunky chains that evoke a touch of fetishism beneath a louche and elegant exterior. Conversely, there’s also underground-club-glam in the form of a silver-metallic Perfecto jacket with matching trousers. Exposed hardware, indeed, is a recurrent motif in the collection with more chains to be found cascading down trousers legs (with chunky zips at the hems) and across torsos that riff on ideas of imprisonment and bondage – savage beauty indeed.

Wonderland also gets a first look at McQ’s accompanying campaign video shot by Sharna Osborne (who also shot a behind the scenes video with our cover girl Taylor Swift last year): it’s shot in a lo-fi, video-cam style and, with its discordant, slightly creepy score, it’s dripping in the off-kilter, occasionally unnerving atmosphere that we have come to expect from the world of McQueen.

WORDS: Benji Walters