Harris Reed Opened London Fashion Week With Big Bang Queer and Queenly Show
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Harris Reed’s Big Bang Queer and Queenly Show
When Vogue’s Anders Christian Madsen dropped in on Harris Reed in his suite at The Standard — where a proper design studio is taking form — the young talent was deeply bronzed after spending Christmas in Bora Bora. In fact Reed has the super-tan historically associated with other flamboyant createurs in fashion, Hollywood and beyond, writes Vogue.
It’s enough that Reed’s models were wearing creations made from repurposed fabrics in a post-NYFW where environmental concerns were not so much and pretty ho-hum, save the esteemed Gabriela Hearst and a few other noble creatives.
Reed opened LFW with a big bang.
In the case of Reed’s second-life fabrics, they came from the home of the heir to the Bussandri upholstery empire. In the young designer’s haute life, this intervention or intersection, if you prefer, is totally expected.
She looked like Donatella Versace’s twin sister. Reed explained, ‘I love your bag.’ She said, ‘Oh, it’s actually from our villa…” And so it goes in the intoxicating life of Harris Reed.
60 Years a Queen
"This isn't so much a direct interpretation of the British monarchy's sartorial inclination, but instead a look at how the club-kid scene has long borrowed, loaned and built upon the regal wardrobe," the Harris Reed collection notes read. "Whether that's in necklines of ruffs, masks and takes on ceremonial crowns or through evocative Elizabethan-era painted faces."
In Harris Reed’s own words: “Hello London, let’s make some fluid history this season . . . “ in a show entitled ‘60 Years a Queen’, inspired by Sir Herbert Maxwell’s 1987 book of the same name. The designer stumbled on the book about the reign of Queen Victoria, during his first year at Central Saint Martins.
A clear design standout was a half-male, half-female torso chest piece, shot with arrows of love [above] that Reed had created with the help of artist Cassie Rendle IG]
Is Harris Reed Italian at Heart?
When we last featured Harris Reed, AOC’s focus was his collaboration on a collection of genderless, sustainable, and colorful voluminous blouses with the house of Etro.
In a Vogue interview well worth the read, this one ends where we left off in November, 2021. There’s something Italo-centric about his collection, prompting thoughts pp writes Madsen — that Reed, who already interned at Gucci and did a collab with Etro, could soon be off to Italy.
Harris Reed agrees. ““I’m continuing a lot of conversations with fashion houses in Italy. One or two is for heading them up, some are for collaborating in a kind of big way,” he divulged. “There’s some really interesting discussions with Etro. Veronica [Etro] called me last night and had some big ideas. I’m very open to that and what that could potentially be.”
Is that a scoop? Reed’s vision, energy and outreach are in orbit. He make have white privilege on his side — but so do many other children of famous Hollywood parents. Veronica Etro, creative director at Etro Womenswear, is absolutely in his corner and I expect she knows many kids of privilege. Reed’s talent seems to have her gobsmacked.
