There are designers who use white as restraint. Harris Reed used it to make you look harder. For Harris Reed SS27, Reed stripped almost all the color from his world and presented Loud Whispers, an almost entirely white collection at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge on September 17. The result was anything but quiet. Corsets curved into exaggerated shoulders, hips swelled beneath satin, feathers punctuated pristine gowns, and crinolines. Without the saturated color that usually accompanies Reed’s theatricality, construction suddenly was impossible to ignore.
It also marked a significant moment for the designer. After leaving Nina Ricci earlier this year, Reed has shifted his full attention back to the label he founded after graduating from Central Saint Martins. He described SS27 as a reassessment of seven years of his own maison and five years showing at London Fashion Week, revisiting the shapes that established his vocabulary and reconsidering how they belong in the present.
Harris Reed SS27
A Phantom Version of Harris Reed
Reed called the collection an almost “phantom” interpretation of his previous 11 seasons, and the palette made that idea immediately visible. Ivory, optic white, cream, and flashes of metallics replaced the jewel tones and dark romanticism associated with past collections. Only a few looks interrupted the white: a creamy gold jacket in hand-painted duchesse satin, a sequined corset, and the bridal finale.
What could easily have become an exercise in minimalism did the opposite. Reed used the absence of color to expose the complexity of the creations.
Corsetry remained central, but it no longer carried the entire collection. Some corsets extended toward the shoulders like wings. Others sharpened the waist before widening dramatically across the hips. Caged constructions traced the body without swallowing it, while trousers and skirts introduced a new sense of ease beneath the architectural upper halves.
For the first time in years, Reed also abandoned his familiar 18-centimeter platforms. Manolo Blahnik shoes replaced the vertiginous footwear, while hats by Stephen Jones preserved the designer’s taste for scale and theatrical punctuation.
Harris Reed SS27
