“It Was the Fantasy I Was Told I’d Never Have”: Inside Harris Reed’s Intimate Chelsea Town Hall Wedding
When Harris Reed met his now husband, Eitan Senerman, via a dating app, there was an instant connection. “It was literally after London opened after the second wave of COVID in 2021,” the London-based designer tells Vogue. “We could sit outside and have dinner for an hour. I remember the waiter literally didn’t move us for four hours [even though our time was up]; he said, ‘You guys looked like you were so in love, I didn’t want to move you.’”
Fast forward 18 months, and Eitan—founder and CEO of Spatial Innovation Lab—orchestrated an equally romantic proposal at one of their favorite places in the UK: The Newt in Somerset. “He surprised me [under] the tree where we had our third date; they shut down the garden. When I walked in, I didn’t believe it was my own proposal—I kept saying, ‘Oh my goodness, someone’s getting engaged in our spot.’” Of course, just as much thought had gone into the engagement ring too, with Eitan picking a 1920s toi et moi design to propose with. “I never thought I was going to have a man on one knee, with a diamond ring,” Harris continues.
The couple quickly set their heart on tying the knot in an intimate ceremony at Chelsea Old Town Hall, ahead of a bigger wedding celebration in Italy next summer. “I think it was very much trying to have the full bride [and] groom fantasy: being in the courthouse; being with family; having those moments on the steps,” Harris explains.
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His pared-back wedding look—which comprised a white silk top featuring a low back and matching tailored trousers—was not what you might expect from Harris, considering the flamboyant, head-turning designs that he is best known for. “As a child, I always imagined this big gown and it being very over-the-top,” he explains. “But the more I went through [different ideas], the more I really wanted it to be less about me trying to make this kind of distracting fashion statement and more about me living in the moment. It felt genuine to myself, but also like a bit of a nod to the 1920s—I tried to find this happy medium between the feminine and the masculine.”
On the day itself, the couple walked down the aisle to Sufjan Stevens’s “Mystery of Love” from the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack, with just close family and friends in attendance (including Harris’s best man, fellow designer Chet Lo). “It was emotional,” the designer reflects. “Walking in together holding hands was just so special for both of us.”
Following the ceremony, Harris surprised Eitan—who wore a double-breasted suit by Husbands Paris for the big day—with a white Rolls-Royce, which transported them back to Claridge’s for a Champagne reception and dinner. “Everything was catered to this idea of like, ‘This is going to be the little fantasy that I was told as a young queer kid I could never have,’” the designer explains. After dinner, guests headed up to the couple’s suite for a spontaneous after-party. “There was so much laughter,” Harris says. “We danced the night away on the terrace, drinking martinis and playing a whole lot of Frank Sinatra.”
For Harris, who is already back in the Nina Ricci studio, the day still hasn’t fully sunk in. “It just did not feel real,” he says. “It was the kind of moment where you feel like you’re watching the movie you played over and over again. It was a day that I never thought I was going to have.”
Photo: Jason Lloyd-Evans2/20My wedding look hanging in the wardrobe. I felt like I was dressing for myself for the first time, not playing a character for the red carpet.