LONDON — In a season of comebacks, there’s one that’s set to shine a little brighter than the rest and that’s jeweler Shaun Leane’s return to the Alexander McQueen runway after 16 years.

Leane, who earlier this month unveiled the launch of 12, a craft-based atelier specializing in bespoke commissions and one-off designs, has created three pieces in collaboration with Seán McGirr, the creative director of Alexander McQueen.

They’ll be worn by models during the brand’s own London comeback catwalk show on Sunday. McQueen revealed earlier this year that it is returning to the London Fashion Week schedule after regularly showing in Paris.

Leane was a close friend of the late Lee Alexander McQueen and made the spiky jewelry and innovative sculptural designs for the designer’s runway shows until his death in 2010.

Leane’s coiled corset, inspired by Burmese neck rings, and silver Crown of Thorns formed a significant part of the “Savage Beauty” Alexander McQueen exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Many of the designs that emerged from their partnership went beyond jewelry and sculpture into the realms of anthropology, religion and philosophy.

They included the Aluminum Jawbone face piece; Spine corset, an aluminum and silver spine and ribcage that encased the model’s body, and the Arm Vine and Thorns, silver briars with prickly edges that twisted around models’ limbs and necks.

Although Leane is keeping mum about the designs he’s done for McGirr’s upcoming show, he said that while nearly two decades have passed, the creative buzz is still there.

“It was Seán who approached me, and when I met him I liked his energy, his bravery and willingness to push boundaries. I was also intrigued about how I would feel not sitting in front of Lee — my best friend — making pieces for the show. The relationship with Seán is different, of course, but the creative energy is the same,” he said.

He’s designed the pieces to express “empowerment, and beauty, and to provoke, question, evolve and take things to a place that people haven’t seen before. That energy in me is still exactly the same as it was before. And Seán did exactly what Lee used to do. He trusted me and let me go and do what I needed to do,” he said.

Leane said he hopes to continue working with McQueen on special runway pieces, and that collaborations will be a big part of his new 12 atelier going forward. He’s already working closely with clients and with the artisans making his creations.

“I’d love to collaborate with a glassmaker, and do more public realm work, and sculpture. For me, it’s about the connection, the artistic relationship between creatives. That’s what I love, and that’s what I had with Lee,” he said.

Leane said he’s always been interested in the work of the multitalented René-Jules Lalique and of the Wiener Werkstätte, or Vienna Workshop, which was established in 1903. The workshop brought together architects, artists, designers and artisans working in ceramics, fashion, silver, furniture and the graphic arts, who made beautiful utilitarian items.

Leane added that his 1990s milieu had the spirit of those Vienna creators. He and McQueen were together all the time, he said, “but we weren’t just hanging around with fashion people. We’d be with Björk, Goldie, Damian [Hirst], Tracey Emin, and Sam Taylor-Johnson. There was this creative explosion of music, art, fashion, jewelry, film and TV. We were a collective.”

Leane’s launch of 12 marks a new chapter in his long career.

Two years ago, he left his eponymous jewelry brand after it was placed into administration. He moved home to the wilds of Ireland, and was soon back to creating, specializing in bespoke pieces for clients including Daphne Guinness.

Leane has had a gilded career, winning the U.K. Jewellery Designer of the Year Award four times, and serving as a judge on the reality show “All that Glitters: Britain’s Next Jewellery Star,” on BBC Two.

In 2020, the book “Shaun Leane” by ACC Art Books was released. It traced the background of the classically trained designer, who pushed the boundaries of his trade through his work. His celebrity clients include the Princess of Wales, who has worn his signature jewelry, and the designs he created for Asprey, where Leane worked as an apprentice at the start of his career, and then later as a creative consultant.

In 2019 he designed Princess Beatrice’s engagement ring, with a round-cut diamond at the center and tapered baguettes on each side. The diamond-studded band is made of platinum, and was designed in Leane’s signature, organic style.

In 2018 Leane made his architecture and public art debut with the opening of the 21 Young Street apartment building in Kensington. Leane designed the building’s exterior metalwork, a graceful maze of leaves and vines.

At the time it was the largest-scale commission in the U.K. to be undertaken by a jewelry designer. His metalwork for 21 Young Street is on permanent display at the V&A Museum in London.