Return to roots: McQueen on Savile Row

Alexander McQueen is set to open two new stores in London this year as part of a drive to double the size of its company-owned worldwide store chain.

The British-based, French-owned designer label will return to the roots of its late founder with a store on Savile Row, where the enfant terrible of British fashion learned his tailoring skills. It will sell bespoke menswear.

That store will open in September, four months after a new McQ diffusion line shop is due to open in a four-storey townhouse in Dover Street in the West End. The label currently only has one London flagship, on Bond Street.

It has 41 stores, franchises and concessions across the globe but is now looking to grow its company-owned stores, and plans a similar number of new stores in 2013 and 2014.

It is eyeing Paris, home to owner PPR, as its next target. The group was rocked in 2010 when its founder and one of Britain’s best-known designers, Lee (Alexander) McQueen committed suicide. But the business is back on the expansion trail after creative director Sarah Burton took the reins.

President and chief executive Jonathan Akeroyd said: “As our business has expanded, we now need more stores to introduce the different collections. Savile Row is special as it is where Lee started his career so it is a nice thing to be going back.

“Our womenswear has grown in the higher-end luxury sector and we wanted to take menswear back there too. We are working with tailor Huntsman to create top-quality bespoke.” The business is opening its first two company-owned Chinese stores in Shanghai in May. This follows the Chinese debut last autumn of a franchised Beijing store. The business will then open its fourth US store in Miami later this year.