Social media may be abuzz with celebrity Halloween costumes, and, among the Halloween madness, witches remain favorites, with inspirations coming from "Wicked" and "Agatha All Along" (and Artificial Intelligence image generators à la Midjourney seem to be able to effortlessly produce their own version of Elphaba Thropp, aka the Wicked Witch of the West, as proved by the first image in this post).
But for those seeking something less commercial, the banshee offers a more on-trend look not just for Halloween, but for the Spring 2025 season.
This inspiration was indeed recently revived by Seán McGirr for Alexander McQueen's S/S 25 collection, showcased in October during Paris Fashion Week at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. McGirr actually borrowed the theme from McQueen's A/W 1994-95 "Banshee" collection.
In the original collection, inspired by "Irish folklore about banshees who were heard wailing when a boat sank," as McQueen explained at the time, models donned sharply tailored jackets (demonstrating McQueen's Savile Row precision), cutout knitwear that left the breasts exposed, bumster pants, molded plaster bustiers, and Elizabethan-inspired gowns.
The second look of the show, a black Elizabethan gown modelled by a pregnant model with a shaved head and "McQueen" stenciled in silver on her skull, caused a stir with its daring blend of dark romanticism and historical gothic. This dramatic presentation, in which also Isabella Blow modelled two looks, was an act of rebellion, a spontaneous display of boundary-pushing fashion rarely seen today.
McGirr's collection resurrected many of these themes, including the sharply tailored suits with exaggerated collars, adding alongside hand-stitched cobweb lace details, distressed textures, shredded silk tops, and dresses of frayed silk organza embroidered with delicate silver bullion.
Black dresses adorned with thorn motifs echoed the dark Mother Nature aesthetic of the tulle-canopied gown McQueen designed for Lana Del Rey at the Met Gala (View this photo; in turn a new version of McQueen's A/W 2006-07 tulle and lace dress with antlers View this photo).
White dresses seemed to be evening versions of the harn (linen) sark (nightshirt) donned by young witch Nannie in Robert Burns' "Tam o' Shanter" poem (this Scottish reference seemed strengthened by the presence of a bustle-backed mini kilt in the collection). Paired with a woolen hat resembling a judge's wig but revealing a skull at the back, these looks blended eerie with historical.
A final dress of silver chains and rhinestones that followed the body's lines like hair flying, as McGirr highlighted to critics at his show, was modelled by a modern banshee, walking barefoot on the fog-filled runway (another reference to McQueen's original show in which most models were barefoot).
The collection also drew from McGirr's Irish heritage and childhood memories of his mother recounting tales of haunting banshees, often seen weeping and combing their long locks signify foreboding in Irish folklore.
Yet, to truly explore the figure of the banshee in Irish folklore without risking to reproduce McQueen's original designs (a trap in which McGirr often falls...), check out the Dúchas project, part of the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin.
Dúchas, meaning "heritage" or "tradition" in Irish Gaelic, is a vast digital archive documenting Irish folklife through the memories and observations of past generations. Originally recorded by schoolchildren, these materials capture everything from local games and bread-making traditions to tales of the supernatural, all freely accessible to the public.
The Dúchas archive includes pages of notebooks filled with Halloween traditions and eerie stories, such as a tale about a banshee's symbolic combing of her hair. The story explains the symbolism behind combing her hair (a gesture that can be linked to McGirr's final silvery dress): "A great number of people in this locality believe in the Banshee or the Bow as it is generally called. The Banshee follows certain families, and when one of the family is about to die, she is seen crying and combing her long hair. She is said to be like an old woman with long grey hair. When the person dies, she disappears. It is said that on one occasion a man in this locality succeeded in taking the comb from the Banshee, and that night she came and sat on his window sill, crying bitterly, and the man had to give it back with a hot tongs [sic]. It is also believed that if you gave it back with your naked hand, you would run the risk of instant death."
So, remember, never take a comb from a Banshee, but also try and find unusual materials in this archive that may prove more interesting in crafting not just Halloween costumes, but unconventional fashion narratives.
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