“It feels like now is a time for healing,” says Sarah Burton, “more than ever, a sense of humanity, of the team working together with a single aim – to make something beautiful, something meaningful – feels both precious and important.” The designer is, of course, referring to the AW21 collection that she has spent the past few months cultivating at Alexander McQueen, unveiled this week in a series of haunting images shot by Paolo Roversi. 

“Healing” came by way of two reference points for Burton: anemone flowers and water. As such, big, blown-out pieces, including peach ballroom dresses, full-bodied, jet black silk skirts, and creamy boat neck knits, came layered in crimson floral prints, abstracted so that they fan out of garments like bloodied bullet wounds. Burton’s trademark hybrids infiltrated, too – a nimble, herringbone suit had been blasted with the sleeves of a bomber jacket while denim bustiers were spliced over regal peacoats. Romanticism, like always, only went as far as its antagonist, grunge, would allow.

Marc Jacobs, also looked to grunge this week, debuting a pair of church bell Balenciaga jeans, which may well herald a (new) nu-rave aesthetic within fashion. Otherwise, Kanye showed off the first piece from his much-anticipated Yeezy partnership with Gap and Romeo Beckham fronted Saint Laurent’s latest campaign. The best link-up, however, came on Sunday night when Michaela Coel stepped out onto the Baftas red carpet in a custom-made gown by Dazed 100 nominee Maximilian. 

In potentially more depressing news, Netflix dropped a line of Halston dresses having just documented the struggles the same designer encountered when surrendering his name to licensing deals. Oh, and we found out that fast fashion is basically 50 per cent plastic, so that’s good. Check out more fashion news you may have missed below: