Nina Ricci names Harris Reed its new creative director

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 21, 2022

Puig’s Nina Ricci label has named London-based Harris Reed as its creative director, the youngest-ever creative chief at the 90-year-old brand.

The British-American designer is just 26 and is known for taking a gender-fluid and avant garde approach to both his own style and his designs. His first collection for the label will debut early next year. Known for his theatricality, he’ll offer up “new perspectives on the archives and lifelong craftsmanship of the house,” we’re told.

On his Instagram account he said: “I have dreamed of this moment for so long, from the time I was a small child, through working my fingers to the bone at [Central Saint Martins], to now. This feels like something out of a movie, a storyline I might sit down and watch at the cinema.”

He also quoted something he said to his mother at the age of nine: “Mom, when I’m older and out of here I’m going to live in Paris. I’m going to create clothes that make me feel me, that make me feel free. And I’m going to be a creative director of one of those French houses I read about at night. I’m going to create the ultimate escape out of here.”

Nina Ricci’s creative direction was previously in the hands of Dutch duo Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, who bought an intensely colourful edge to the brand’s output. The Hyères prizewinners left earlier this year.

Reed, a graduate in 2020 of Central Saint Martins, has described his own demi-couture label as “romanticism gone non-binary” and his high-profile design style has seen him being patronised by a number of celebs, including Harry Styles. His personal style has also seen him appearing in a Gucci campaign and walking the Gucci runway prior to his graduation.

Nina Ricci is a major name in perfumery and is perhaps best known to many consumers for its scents rather than its fashion output. Working closely with new general director for fashion and fragrances, Edwin Bodson, Reed’s impact will clearly also be felt on the beauty side of the business.

Bodson has strong experience of working with avant-garde London designers having earlier in his career been commercial chief at JW Anderson. He said the Harris Reed appointment marks a “new era” and highlighted Reed’s rejection of norms and “singular vision of magnified femininity”.

In the photo realised with the announcement, Reed is seen wearing haute couture SS92 tulle gloves from the Nina Ricci archives, a further indication that this is a designer prepared to live the brand. However, Reed will continue to run his own label.