With autumn well on its way, whispers of a Victorian Gothic revival are heard from the shadowy billows and lacquered leather of McQueen’s Autumn/Winter 2025 campaign. Renowned model—and V’s own V153 cover star—Alex Consani puts on a solemn face and a bound, belted leather jacket from the house’s Fall 2025 collection, magnifying the campaign’s themes of freedom and subversion. 

Photography by Glen Luchford | Courtesy of McQueen

While the average fall and winter fashions are typically portrayed with sheepskin fur-lined boots, oversized knits, and the exhaustion of the word “cozy,” McQueen’s autumn and winter designs are much more inspired. With creative direction by Seán McGirr, the campaign underscores the liberating artistry of those who came before, the 19th century’s most vivacious spirits: Oscar Wilde, Vesta Tilley, and Romaine Brooks.

“The collection was rooted in the uncompromising self-expression of independent thinkers, exploring the tension between tradition and transgression,” says McGirr. “Their spirit of progressivism feels pertinent now, inherent in modern questions of character, identity, idealism, and gender.”

Photography by Glen Luchford | Courtesy of McQueen

With direction and photography by Glen Luchford, such an era of restrained expression is captured with a fantasized, rapturous release in the following. Bodies are contorted, arched, twisted, and writhed. Meanwhile, the collection itself is constructed in dramatics of shadowed rippling silk georgette, layers of baroque black lace, and tightly tailored leather. The campaign unbinds its force through feeling and attitude that feels instinctual and seasonable for the current era. 

Photography by Glen Luchford | Courtesy of McQueen