16 September 2024 |
Entitled ‘Encore,’ Harris Reed’s SS25 show picked up from his previous collection where he up-cycled vintage fabrics and collaborated with specialist wallpaper company Fromental. Reed’s resourcefulness, borne out of necessity as well as concern for the environment is legendary and inspiring. In this era of restricted budgets, he finds a way to make it work. This time he sourced fabrics from eBay and car boot sales. Finding curtain lace and silk damask upholstery fabric from the 19th century as well as vintage tablecloths and shawls. He and his team remastered these old fabrics, transforming them into Reed’s eye-catching designs. His models walked onto a trellised set, wearing huge halo collared jackets, corseted mini dresses in silk damask, trellised ‘cage’ dresses and panniered lace gowns – those jutting panniers were modelled on the arms of the heavily upholstered chairs that his fabrics once covered.
Although many looks bore his now familiar design signatures – fish-tail silhouettes, vast picture necklines, swooping, face framing elements and sky-high platform boots, the designer said he wanted each piece to stand on its own like furniture, which they did. Each Reed dress is a self-contained event – event being the operative word. Reed has found his niche with wow factor celebrity dressing where one-of-a-kind is the most desirable attribute, and this collection is, no doubt, headed for a red carpet near you soon.
Photography Suleika Mueller, courtesy of Harris Reed.
