Seven months ago, Harris Reed began setting alerts on second-hand resale sites online, from Depop to Etsy, and eBay to Textile Trunk, in a bid to source vintage interiors fabrics for his spring 2025 collection. His search for materials—including an Art Nouveau lace appliqué drape, a 19th century cherub-motif golden silk damask that once upholstered a headboard, and confectionery-hued striped vintage curtain panels in duchesse satin—took his small team from British car boots to specialist online sellers across Europe as he “got the itch” for sourcing far and wide. Reed’s inspirations are usually rooted in a storytelling narrative—like paper dolls, debutante balls, and Shakespearean costume—but this season he let fabrication fuel his collection concept. While you wouldn’t expect it of his ostentatious designs, he said, “I love working within limitations.”
Reed took these design cues from his fall 2024 collaboration with wallcovering specialist Fromental—who provided him with scraps of hand-painted silk wallpaper—and the experience of decorating the new London home he moved into in July. “I went very maximalist and regal with tons of velvet, and reupholstered lots of things,” he said. “I almost wanted the pieces in this collection to stand up on their own like furniture.” Take a fishtail bias-cut skirt and jacket, featuring a structured lapel that swoops like a headpiece around the body, crafted using three 200-year-old Point de Venise lace tablecloths and shawls, color-matched and crocheted together. Or a white silk organza mini-dress, appliqued with black 3D flowers made from old haberdashery fabrics, with dramatic hip panniers, that resemble “the arms of chair.” For Reed’s evolving client list in Texas (in addition to a strong custom-order market in Asia and the Middle East), the bolder the design, the better. “The more we push maximalism and over-the-top elegance, the more clients we get,” he explained. “I’ve never had to expand my label into t-shirts and jeans.”
Dreamlike design aside, Reed is not immune to the financial and creative quagmire in which the London fashion industry has found itself in recent months, fueled in part by the implosion of luxury retailer Matchesfashion. His response? “Put on a real show,” he enthused, of his decision to return to the subterranean tanks of the Tate Modern, with a theatrical caged show set, that nodded to the winged corsets and crinolines in his collection. As part of his seasonal research, Reed visited the archives of the V&A Museum, studying the architectural construction of corsets handled by white-gloved women. Like last season, the designer decided against a live catwalk performance by the likes of Florence Pugh or Sam Smith, because he knows that his clothes deliver more than enough drama. “I don’t know how not to be a showman,” he said.
