Backstage, Harris Reed reported that Nina Ricci has gone from “one store to 125” since his arrival. Something about his exuberant, more-is-more approach is working for the French brand, which has seen a steady stream of designers cycle in and out over the past 20 or so years.
Nina Ricci is a name the world knows because of its blockbuster fragrance, L’Air du Temps. There’s not much brand history to dig into on the fashion side beyond the romance of that best-selling perfume, so designers make up new rules as they come along. An American designer based in London, Reed has brought his queer eye and gender-fluid approach to the label.
Like his debut last season, the new collection skewed toward evening. He opened with a short silk duchesse babydoll dress in icy blue, accessorized with above-the-elbow gloves, fishnet stockings, platform heels—the whole shebang. Reed loves a really big statement, be that a pink column gown with a sculptural neckline shaped like a life preserver or a pantsuit with a matching bra top in a metallic mint crinkle leather nearly as reflective as a mirror. And he never met a bow he didn’t like. They climbed up strapless dresses with sweetheart necklines, punctuated the backside of a tweed bouclé miniskirt suit, and arched out at least a foot on either side of the waist on a zebra-striped look that numbered among the collection’s showiest pieces.
Parts of it edged into camp. Subtlety is not really part of Reed’s vocabulary—even on wardrobe essentials like a suit, he cuts his lapels extra-wide and his bell-bottoms super-swishy—but he reined in some of his more extra instincts here to positive effect. An ivory halter-neck dress with a triangular cutout at the solar plexus almost qualified as minimal. He credited the shift with the year he’s spent in Paris, “actually living here and walking down the streets and seeing a lot of my queer community, but also a lot of French women and how they wear clothes.”
Another mark in the plus column: the fact that he’s bringing body diversity to the runway in a way that feels natural and instinctive and not like filling a quota. Not many other designers here in Paris can say that.
