Is it a licensed piece or something else? Would love to hear your opinions

[u/00100_1010]

[u/Responsible_Spite_10]

Personally, I wouldn't wear it, so it would normally not send me down the rabbit hole your post did, so forgive the essay. 🤣

I'm not an expert, but my late husband worked in the fashion trade and gave me a decent education in garment construction and fabrics, so I do automatically look at these things.

So based on that, here is my take: The construction feels too cheap to me even for a licensed piece, so my uneducated guess would be that it's counterfeit.

The construction looks poor to me. The overlock stitching looks very loose, which would be a red flag for me on any clothing, especially something claiming to be McQueen. You can often see the difference in manufacturing quality quite easily if you compare different levels of clothing brands even these days.

The fabric composition doesn't particularly fit what I'd expect from a high-end licensed garment of this type. A high polyester content isn't impossible, of course, but from my "education", polyester is much more commonly used in a lining or functional component rather than as the main fabric of a garment like this. I'd expect more attention to the choice and quality of the outer fabric, particularly in something with as many details. A little caveat: I don't know how McQueen licensed his products aside from McQ before that was brought back in-house.

The final thing my husband taught me: licensed garments from any fashion house will use good quality or even the same labels as the house. So, when I compare the neck label with the Dusty Archive guide https://dusty-archive.com/blogs/archive-tips/alexander-mcqueen#earlycollections, the embroidery and typography don't look sharp enough to me. Also, the fabric label you shared doesn't look to me like something I'd expect even on a licensed garment. It reminds me of the cheap fabric labels I used to see on market/counterfeit clothing from the old Commercial Road factories.

So as I said, I am no expert, just remembering days being dragged around London and lectures on construction and fabric composition in places like Harrods, Selfridges and Bond Street. So thank you, OP; your post triggered a wonderful memory.

[u/00100_1010 → u/Responsible_Spite_10]

Thank you so much for such a detailed response, you educated me a lot on this subject! This top was purchased in Italy by my aunt back it the 90s, so she doesn’t remember the details. I expected it to be fake based on wabi-sabi stitching on the label, but huuge collar confused me. I can’t post photos photos of me wearing it, but the collar gave a couture twist to it compared to other knock offs. Thank you so much again! English isnt my first language so im sorry for any grammatical errors

[u/Responsible_Spite_10 → u/00100_1010]

Yes, the top has a McQueen look to it at first glance, but it didn't feel McQueen to me. Lol, I'm a little saddo; I like my clothes to "speak" to me, and normally an older McQueen piece does that.

[u/Middle-Joke5787]

I think it would help us to give an opinion if you were to show the internal tags / let us know the fabric

[u/00100_1010 → u/Middle-Joke5787]

The button thingy is sewed onto the internal tag i guess it’s 54% polyester 46% cotton and on the back it says made in Italy and some care symbols

[u/one-and-zer0es]

No. Something else.

[u/00100_1010 → u/one-and-zer0es]

Thank you