McQ has a new creative director in Pina Ferlisi, and with the regime change will come collection changes, including more accessories, an increasingly casual feel and 25 percent lower prices.

Looks like it's going to take at least at 30% price reduction for her to get excited about the new McQ

“We always felt there was scope to create a brand that was more accessible — and a little more edgy,” President and CEO Jonathan Akeroyd said. “Weâ€ve got a strong ambition for it.” {Fashionologie}

Weâ€re not quite sure how a brand becomes at once more accessible and edgier, since we generally perceive edgy to mean bold, daring or more difficult to pull off as a style, but the 25 percent discount is a huge plus.

In keeping with the fashion advertising trend du jour, McQ will debut a film that features models wearing the preview clothes this week in lieu of a look book.

As far as the sneak peak clothes go, weâ€re not all that impressed, actually. (Pause for a huge gasp in response to us having anything negative to say about anything McQueen). The looks are bland and a bit too dark. We understand dark looks are signature to McQueen, but something about the new McQ line is too emo teenager/Wednesday Addams, falling short of the fantastical edginess weâ€re used to from McQueen. Hopefully the full collection will be more impressive in a few months. What do you think of the McQ fall 2011 preview?

“McQ will become our responsibility alongside the core Alexander McQueen label, allowing us to share ideas and knowledge, expand the business and grow the already iconic brand,” President and CEO of Alexander McQueen Jonathan Akeroyd told WWD. “Over the past five years, McQ has established itself internationally with its young, renegade but always signature McQueen style and we are ready to take it to the next stage in its development.”

Speaking of development at Alexander McQueen, the label is enjoying wild success of late, as the highly anticipated first womenswear collection by newly appointed creative director Sarah Burton debuted with astounding praise from critics in Paris this month. Burton replaced Lee Alexander McQueen at the helm following his death earlier this year.

The general consensus among critics is that Burtonâ€s first collection was the perfect balance of respecting McQueenâ€s vision and adding personal, more feminine touches to advance the brand.

Hilary Alexander at the Telegraph said the collection included “elaborately-beautiful pieces which maintained the spirit of McQueen’s legacy, whilst injecting a new atmosphere of ethereal bohemian romance,” while Cathy Horyn at The New York Times said, “some references to the McQueen craft and drama are necessarily, but her choices reflected a gradual transition.”

At left, the closing look from Sarah Burton's first solo collection at Alexander Mc Queen. At right, designer Sarah Burton

Booth Moore at the Los Angeles Times noted that Burtonâ€s collection seemed more wearable than the typical McQueen line. He credited that to her status as a woman, saying the clothes, “didn’t have the tortured genius of the namesake designer … But the clothes may have been better for it.” He added that even though much of Burtonâ€s collection was typical McQueen, “Burton banished McQueen’s famously restrictive neckpieces, headdresses and hobbling shoes with a woman’s touch.”

What do you think of the collection? Perfect balance of McQueen and Burton, or would you have liked to see something else?