The Show Must Go On: Harris Reed Injects Drama and Glamour Into a City in Mourning
LONDON — It has become tradition for Harris Reed to kick off London Fashion Week with fireworks, even though his show is not on the official calendar.
This season was no different, despite the fact that the country is in national mourning for Queen Elizabeth II. Reed’s first physical runway show featured a live performance and swanning models, but it was also was tactful and majestic.
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He hosted his sixth collection inside Dutch Hall, a renovated church that dates to 1550, a time when King Edward VI was welcoming Protestant Dutch, French and Flemish refugees to England.
On Thursday evening, Reed channeled the majestic mood with 150 guests seated for a spectacle. His shows are often like a debutante ball inside “Hotel Transylvania” with the drama of “Dynasty.”
Queen’s frontman Adam Lambert took to the red velvet-draped stage to perform “Nessun Dorma” from the final act of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Turandot” about royalty, love and death.
He was dressed in a black suit with power shoulders and a floor-length cape.
“We rejigged the music and changed the mood to make it feel more appropriate, especially as Adam performed at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee earlier this year,” said Reed after the show, adding that, as a young designer he had to “keep working, as things had been paid for. I think the queen would have wanted the British economy and art scene to flourish.”
Reed’s show was filled with jewel-toned demi-couture looks made mostly from deadstock fabrics.
His color palette was inspired by what he found at the “LVMH deadstock showroom [in London] and Fabric House, a deadstock place out in the countryside. I’m trying to explore color in a bit of a fun, different way,” he said.
His silhouette this season felt more regal and wearable, without compromising his signature theatrical designs. His last collection was successful editorially and has been selling well, and he’s been working toward getting the pieces on the red carpet.
“My challenge was how to have wearable art with a semi-couture approach,” and have it worn on the red carpet at events such as the MTV VMAs, said Reed, who also collaborated with jewelry brand Missoma for a silver sequinned ensemble for the show.
The show was larger than life, and it was impossible for guests to snapshot the garments on their small iPhone screens. “I wanted people to literally get hit in the face with silk taffeta — and they did,” Reed said.
The British American designer ended the show with a short, strapless bridal gown accompanied by an oversize fan hat inspired by his nights out in London at Metropolis, a former five-floor strip club that has become the stomping ground for many queer Londoners.
“It was all about my friends in go-go boots and ripped up bridal dresses,” he said, adding that he included a bouquet of lily of the valley flowers with the final look in a nod to the queen. It was her favorite flower.
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