Dazzle from day to night.
You will be hearing Harris Reed’s name a lot in the coming months, if not already thanks to Harry Styles, Solange and Gucci’s Alessandro Michele.
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Today he unveils a 30-piece capsule collection as part of the The Innovators initiative – a matchesfashion.com program that supports design talent and celebrates luxury craftsmanship.
Expect pieces channeling the glam-rock-romanticism, offering billowing ruffled lamé blouses, silk velvet pussybows and silk tops.
This is the first time Reed has released a collection to the public with all styles in extremely limited numbers to one-off pieces, and below he talks us through his inspiration and why he wanted to become a designer.
What can we expect from the matchesfashion.com collection?
This collection for me is completely glam rock non-binary, it’s fabulous it’s decadent and it really is just a collection for someone who wants to be looked at, they want people to stop and stare, the way that people view what someone should be wearing, how they view people and individuality and self-expression. I’m excited about that, you can expect a lot of bringing the individuality back to fashion, bringing the self-expression back to fashion and just bringing beautiful and fun, expressive fabrics.
What made you want to become a designer?
It wasn’t even a choice, from a young age it was always what I wanted to do. Being six or seven I would be trying to push furniture on my knees around the house until I was eight or nine and then I was starting to physically rearrange the living room, I was just so inspired, I wanted to be touching materials and fabrics and I think it was just something that I knew was so fantastic and something that I wanted to do.
Do you remember the first piece you ever designed?
I remember the first real piece was when I designed this all white look for the Central Saint Martins white show, that was really the first piece that I felt I truly designed that embodied who I was, what I stood for, what I wanted the world to see, and it was based on a made up fictional character. It was all about this 18th century aristocratic boy who was cast out on the streets because of his gender by his family and moved into this opera house with these accepting, beautiful beings and each day would put on white gardenia powder and the outfit completely became immersed by powder, hence why it all became white. So, I think that was for me the piece that really showed the world, and the piece that Solange Knowles pulled, it then was with Vogue, and then it probably has done the rounds probably 200 times to magazines. That was really for me the first piece that encapsulated who I was as a designer, who I was as a creative, who I was as an activist.
What is the state of fashion industry today, and how does your brand fit into it?
I think the state of the fashion industry right now is in a place where we no longer need mass fashion, or fast fashion. The world is slowly falling apart, we need to bring back craftsmanship, bespoke clothing, buy less, and keep it for a longer amount of time. So, I think where my brand stands besides being political and the activism within my work, it stands for a more eco-conscious buyer who wants to be aware what is going on politically and environmentally. I think my brand also fits in because in this day and age it is no longer just about design, I believe it is 50 percent design, 50 percent activism that goes in to each garment. My brand perfectly fits in to the new tomorrow with the new designers coming up in New York, coming up in London, Paris, Berlin, these are not just people who want to make pretty clothes. They might make gorgeous and beautifully, pretty clothes but its pretty clothes with a strong message behind them. That’s what I think is exciting and that’s where I believe my brand fits.
Describe your design process.
My design process has always mostly been the same, always stemmed from me being a young child and not having loads of friends when I was younger, so I was always expressive and individual with my style and what I stood for. A lot of my design process comes from these fictional characters which I made up in my head and a lot of them had these romantic, aristocratic, Edwardian characters, these genderless portraits you see hanging up like from the 16th century, the 18th century. I think I just always had imaginary friends that I dressed and would run around the house in curtains and bedsheets and I think that stemmed down to today when even everything I do starts from this fictional character where gender and their being and stuff is very much the forefront of challenging the status quo. I mix that in with going to a museum, going through research books, whether I’m looking at a sleeve from a painting or I’m going through books and looking at a fabrication from a party that happened in 1972, with this amazing being and she’s throwing her head back, in an amazing fringed dress. So, its kind of like it all just stems from everywhere, but it always comes back to strong narrative, a strong message of a more fluid tomorrow.
How does it feel to have someone like Harry Styles support your brand?
Having Harry Style’s support has immensely… immensely helped, immensely like, important to me. To have him stand behind not only my brand but also the message I want to put across to the public, that I want to get across for a more accepting tomorrow and for people to really be full individuals, be fully expressive. He has been super lovely and really, really amazing and has really let me flourish, working together and just letting me have so much creative freedom. Being able to work back and forth has been amazing process, as well he is an amazing human, he was such a big support.
Can we expect to see you in Dubai soon?
I would love to come to Dubai, I have heard nothing but fantastic things about it from so many friends, that I would absolutely love to come to Dubai, so maybe I’ll have to stop over.
How would you define inclusivity?
I think inclusivity for me is more of creating a space where everyone feels included, and I think I try to create work that is for a more fluid and a more accepting tomorrow so I’m creating, I’m taking people into this inclusive world, I’m bringing them to a safe space, I’m bringing them to a space where people can run around and find flouncy blouses and dresses, and being who they really want to and sometimes they feel accepted and they feel loved, and they feel so excited.
Describe the view from your window today?
I’m currently on a train, so I just passed Florence, it was beautiful, it was sunny, I saw an old woman sitting at her window drinking coffee and eating a baguette, it was very cliché but very beautiful.
When should you learn to compromise?
Never compromise.
What is the best piece of advice you ever received?
I think it was, always stay true to yourself and follow your dreams.
What is the worst?
That you have to sacrifice who you are sometimes to get things that you would like. I think that’s probably the worst piece of advice I’ve ever gotten.
What is on your current playlist?
Oh my gosh, what is on my current playlist right now? I think James Blake’s new album is the full thing that is on my playlist, Crooked Colours, their whole new album, and then I’m not going to lie it might be one of Harry Styles’ on there.
What are your favourite apps to use?
I’m not a big phone person, I’m a lot more about the physical space and the physical presence, I think the only app I probably use is Instagram because it is the best way to get my message to the world and get it across to people.
The capsule collection is available exclusively at matchesfashion.com from today.
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Images: Supplied
