Strictly limited clutches revive Lee McQueen’s four-ring handle through fresh crystal fields and patient embroidery.
Alexander McQueen’s 2025 Knuckle Clutch Capsule salutes the house’s twin fixations—jewellery-grade hardware and exact handwork—with limited pieces that balance grit and grace.
Conceived by Lee Alexander McQueen in 2009, the Knuckle Clutch married an evening bag to a four-ring grip, turning the wearer’s hand into a piece of armour. The silhouette has since shifted through skull-studded rings, flower shapes and talon motifs, yet its clash of elegance and defiance never dimmed.
The new capsule revisits those archival ring forms, mounting them on satin shells thick with crystal constellations and bullion thread. Each clutch demands hundreds of hours in the studio. Artisans cast the rings by the lost-wax method, polish them to a high gleam, then embroider thousands of stones one by one to gain a surface that catches, and keeps, the light. Depth comes not from bulk but from layers of craft.
Alexander McQueen is releasing the capsule in strictly limited numbers at selected boutiques and on AlexanderMcQueen.com. Under creative director Seán McGirr, the launch keeps Lee’s original tension between romance and rebellion alive—scaled to an object that fits in the palm yet carries the weight of the house’s history.
These clutches are more than accessories; they are small monuments to radical craft, ready for nights out in 2025 and poised for the display cabinets that follow.
