In previous seasons, Harris Reed has stripped the walls of their ornate paperings and scavenged for lace drapes in British car boot sales. For fall 2025, the British-American designer expanded his house proudness—in more ways than one—and excavated the insides of the living room furniture.
This is Reed’s ninth own-name collection, and parallel to what is now a four season tenure as Nina Ricci’s creative director, the French house where he continues his study of liberated femininity. For the occasion, he returned to the show home he’s made within the cavernous, strobe-lit Duveen Galleries of Tate Britain. A troupe of familiar faces walked in a cinematic parade to a string arrangement of Metallica. “It is only when we are no longer fearless, that we can begin to create,” pronounced Florence Pugh, who was dressed like an oracle in a hooded and pronged corset gown, as she opened the show.
Armed with a panoply of references and emotional pulls spanning political turmoil, British punk, drag icons, and Victorian ladies, Reed called back to his first collection made during lockdown. “Everything is informed by a feeling of rebellion, looking to when I was sewing in my bedroom and trying to create things of theater and glamour,” he said during a preview in his new central London-based studio, while models practiced walking in sky-high platforms and hand-painted corsets.
This was articulated in “a more fine art approach, ”one that’s been executed with a new sense of restraint from a designer who remains enamoured with the avant-garde, but is reckoning with the practicality his client base needs. The collection started monochromatic, from Reed’s black sharpie pen. Cobalt blue and gold accents followed. Maybe a few seasons ago, he reflected, the exposed Victoriana crinoline cages would have been ensconced in taffeta or chiffon. Now, they acted as both moments of vulnerable self-exposure and armor. Breasts bloomed with gold-leaf painted spikes and 3D-printed and hand-painted tentacles, while another spear-armed corset climbed a meter from the bustline. “A dramatic shape or silhouette isn’t done without a strong sense of intention. Every look claims space,” said Reed. “With a queer and female team, I’m thinking about how we protect ourselves in ways that make us feel elevated and beautiful.”
He remains deeply inspired by the flowing bias cuts and draping of couturier Charles James and has interpolated the technical approaches of furniture makers from his collaboration with Porta Romana. (The interiors brand’s chandeliers glitched and glowed blue for the runway). A set of hips curved with Georgian-era panniers, utilizing construction elements for the limbs of an armchair, while a basket weaving technique used on sofas and material mimicking horsehair bolstered other disruptive silhouettes. Reed remains a proudly British brand, the collection made entirely in the UK, with deadstock Savile Row wool used to create structured peplums that lead into diaphanous sourced chiffon.
There’s no creature comforts here, though. Harris Reed is a brand with a red carpet-minded state of play, specializing in event dressing. “People are coming to us for that special occasion—the Grammys, a 40th birthday party, a CEO signing. It’s been formative to meet super-powerhouse women that want to make a bold and unapologetic moment,” he explained. The designer is ready to push the Harris Reed woman out the door and into her own unknown—as he said, “living comfortably in uncomfortability” is when we cultivate our best selves.
