From Palmer Harding, a “Personal, Honest” Project Starring Their Families and Friends

From Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, to Westphalia, Texas, this endearing Palmer Harding presentation explored the emotional and intellectual span of this trans-Atlantic brand. 

As Levi Palmer explained over Zoom from his quarantine (freshly returned to the UK from seeing family in his native US) with Matthew Harding looking on via his screen at their London studio, they came up with the concept in mid-April, in the thick of lockdown. “At this point we were isolated but still connecting with our families; Matthew started speaking with his grandmother every day at seven for instance, and out of that grew the idea of wanting to do something more personal and honest to us for the season.”

The result is this portfolio of images and a film, which were shot in one day—with the designers pulling the strings yet again via Zoom— and which feature close family and friends dressed in the designers’ work as they discuss their relationships, feelings about getting dressed, and hopes for the future. Nancy, Levi’s mom, is shot in a racy pleather skirt and blue shirt outside an old time store in Westphalia. Ever, Levi’s cousin, wanders by the LA liquor store featured in Clueless in tailoring and shirting. Jan, Levi’s “fashion fairy godmother,” swans around the replica metal longhorn on Pioneer Plaza, Dallas, in a suite of elegant top-to-toe looks, and Jasmin, Levi’s best friend from way back, walks by Belton High School swathed in a black dress and reminiscence. 

Jan, photographed by Brendan Freeman. 

Jasmin, photographed by Brendan Freeman. 

Back in England, Suzanne, Matthew’s mum, putters about her dreamy river-backed garden in an asymmetrically hemmed sweater, while Jean, his granny, enjoys the greenhouse in a dashingly coordinated skirt and shirt. Meanwhile Matthew’s sister Gemma and niece Georgia—“the scene-stealer,” said Harding—potter prettily by a lake, or catch frogs. The film and shoot both feature clothes from the fall 2020 collection (unseen in the last lookbook) and both designers said they relished the chance to cast those they love most in the clothes they love making side-by-side. Simple and affecting, this Palmer Harding presentation showed the women who have been formative in the making of the label enjoying the fruits of it.