The last time I sat down with Julien Macdonald, 54, was so long ago that neither of us are that keen to work it out.
Vaguely, it was the early 2010s when he was showing at London Fashion Week every season, and at the time of our meeting a gaggle of seamstress hands were busy sewing sequins and crystals onto an outfit for Beyoncé. Mrs Carter is still a fan (as is Kylie, J-Lo, Taylor Swift and all the Kardashians) of the Welsh former wunderkind protégé of Karl Lagerfeld. The late designer appointed him head of knitwear at Chanel in 1996 after judging his MA at the Royal College of Art.
After Chanel he took over from Alexander McQueen at Givenchy, spending three years as its creative director. “My lawyer said just take the money, you’ll be there for one show. I never thought I’d be there for years.” His work has held up. Kris Jenner recently wore an archive couture dress for her 70th birthday, although it was at first misidentified as McQueen not Macdonald. He messaged her. “I know her, I said, ‘That’s my dress’.” She changed her Instagram credit. “She looked amazing.”
Of that era he remembers, “You’re on the edge all the time, the amount of work, the pressure. I used to go back to my apartment in Paris, close the door and just start screaming.” He’s laughing about it now. He was 28. He notes that the newly incumbent designers at these houses are mature designers now. “Jonathan Anderson is a great designer, they’ve [Dior] put an experienced designer in. He’s rocking the world of that house, making it attractive to a young person. Fashion’s exciting again.”
He’s hoping to be a part of that wave, too. Speaking ahead of his comeback London Fashion Week show, Macdonald was as buoyant as ever. He’s looking to “reignite my brand in the fashion arena, raise my profile” and of course, “give a bit of glamour to a lot of women — there are no designers that do my style.”
Like most in the industry, he hasn’t escaped the economy’s brutal few years. In 2023 his company went into liquidation, a casualty of the Debenhams collapse where his Star by Julien Macdonald spin off brand had thrived for 17 years. “My business model was not resilient — one moment it was all there then the next day it was gone. The Debenhams money propped up my business, and when it went we just couldn’t survive. It was a tough time,” he says.
The other side of his business was bespoke, couture clients who would pay up to £40,000 for one of his signature spangling creations. His métier has always been unapologetically high-octane glamour for the yacht per cent.
This new phase will concentrate on ready to wear, with crystal strewn jersey party dresses around the £2,000 to £2,500 mark, still luxury, but less intensive than made to measure work. “I intend to sell through my website and Instagram. Perhaps six weeks after the show I’ll launch one dress, then a couple of weeks later another dress. I’ll stagger drops throughout the year.”
He’ll also keenly market his celebrity superfans. “Straight after the show I’m gonna get people like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez and Hailey Bieber [who’s walked twice in his shows]... normally they all request, ‘Can you keep me that dress?’. Then as soon as that celebrity is on the red carpet in the dress, I’ll sell that dress on my website.” He’s also planning a very Macdonald-tinged trunk show tour around Saint-Tropez, Athens, Mykonos and Ibiza where he’ll “team up with luxury hotel chains and host poolside parties. They’ll invite their top tier clients and it will be a Julian Macdonald experience and you’ll be able to buy the pieces.”
In the second half of the year he’ll head to Dubai. “The most affluent client lives in Dubai. They dress up. They’re uber-glamorous women, they wear these clothes when they go out.” Then Art Basel and Atlanta. There’ll be exclusive, limited colour ways of designs for each destination.
The new collection is, neatly, inspired by The Shard, where the LFW show will also be held. “Sometimes we forget about the greatness that the city has to offer. I was walking down the Thames with my dog [Nico, a black Brussels Griffon] — we call him the money dog. I watched the sunset change the colours of the buildings and I fell in love with the colours of The Shard on a summer’s night. I just love this building.” He pauses. “What’s that building in Paris? The Eiffel Tower! It’s like our Eiffel Tower.”
He’s referenced the building’s shape and reflections into the beading and crystal-covered mesh dresses which span the gamut of sexy backless slips for the uninhibited to draped, statement-shouldered gowns for the more demure glamourpuss.
There’s also plenty of crystal-covered swimwear. Strictly for posing, not swimming in. “The woman wearing that has spent hours in her room tanning her body, she’s not going in the pool,” he laughs. “If you’re confident you can wear anything, you can’t be shy. That’s my woman. It’s a positive brand for strong, confident women who love dressing up. The woman today, she goes to the gym, Pilates, she has Botox, fillers, lasers, triple eye lashes, she wants to dress up!”
Shrewdly, he managed to retain the name of his Star by Julien Macdonald line, which is now sold online. He also has a homeware collection and show on QVC (“I get stopped all the time, ‘I’ve got your picture frame in my house!’”).
“My sisters are both NHS nurses, they’re head to toe in Star by Julien Macdonald,” he says. “I do a great jean for £60.” They’ll both be at the show, along with his 92-yearold mother — “she’s scared of heights, we’ve not told her yet it’s [at The Shard]”.
During his time out of the fashion week circus he has been watching on. “London is great for young emerging talent,” he posits, “but it does need a bit of wow-ness.” His return certainly delivered some much-needed razzmatazz.
