Richard Quinn's Enchanted Secret Garden London Fashion Week AW19

If you were to describe Richard Quinn in three words; it would be fearless, glamorous and British. In the past Her Majesty The Queen has sat front row, this time British breakthrough singer Freya Ridings performed on a grand piano, under a lit chandelier wearing one of Quinn's fantastical creations. Britain is an interesting topic at the moment - no one quite knows what's happening with Brexit, how exactly it'll affect British designers, what we do know however is that Richard Quinn's unapologetic creativity continues to blossom. It is that same element of unafraid creativity that sparked Alexander McQueen's Horn of Plenty collection at the same time Britain entered into a recession.


Harking back to his time spent at Central Saint Martins, Quinn's love for traditional British motifs began with florals - they have always been present. His BA collection featured hand-painted flowers. His MA, up to ten layers of silkscreens were required to create each immersive floral pattern. Yes, he is inspired by old prints, but it's his subversive twisting and breathing new life into them that has earned Quinn the accolades he has won. Most recently that being Emerging Talent for Womenswear at the British Fashion Awards. This season seen Richard Quinn explore more couture-led shapes and embellishments on his designs, however they wouldn't be inherently Richard Quinn if they didn't contrast intensively on top of kinky latex bodysuits or collars cut so high they suggested these weird super long necks. His sculptural floral creations flicker between generations, "when I was interning at Dior, many of the archive pieces had a corset within the dress, as ours do now, as it enables us to create more extreme waists."

Although Quinn's Peckham studio may be a laboratory for print innovation, this season seen him push what he's best known for. His usual bouquet of prints became intricate embroideries, "we really wanted to elevate what we do, turning our prints into embroideries to show an evolution. There's a challenge when you do so many prints as we do, it can easily become too much. There had to be a measured balance, that's one of the reasons we turned to embroidery, the other was to make couture-led craft relevant to us." Quinn also explored marabou feathers as a means of embellishment - his finale look, a wedding dress was nothing short of extraordinary. It was a fitting close for Richard Quinn's latest offering, which unfortunately that same day came the news that fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld had sadly passed away. As one legend of haute couture left our world, it's reassuring to know that protégés like Richard Quinn are the future of fashion, and as an advocate for emerging talent, I'm positive Karl would have been a fan.

Images courtesy of Dazed Digital and Vogue Runway

Karl Lagerfeld

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