The Harris Reed collections have always inhabited their own world, and for the brands tenth season, Victorian Gothic grandeur set the scene for ‘The Aviary’.

The contradictory notions of containment and freedom are explored; the confines of cage-like silhouettes are contrasted with the liberation of wing like structures giving a sense of the models soaring, flitting birdlike around the show space, displaying their plumage in a cacophony of colour.

For Reed, the designs always begin with the silhouette, exaggerating and embellishing the human form and playing with proportions through corsetry, caging, and an excess of drapery and texture. A tailored suit with flared trousers built out at the hips and a corseted jacket cinching impossibly at the waist and flaring wide at the shoulders works to completely transform the body’s proportions, whilst corsets branch out from the core of the body, extending like wings. The brand’s signature crinolines are employed to create voluminous mermaid skirts before being exposed and contorted, as if caught mid dance, and finally reworked into a form of chest-plate armour in red grosgrain ribbon.

Having previously collaborated with luxury wallpaper experts Fromental by repurposing their archive silks, Reed was keen to explore their artistry with textiles further and collaborate on bespoke fabrics for the collection. Archival Nottingham lace was the inspiration for a new landscaped lace print featured on a blue duchess bodice with chenille silk embroidery, and in pink silk on a fan shaped corset top with curved sleeves. Lilac and chartreuse duchess satins were gestural painted with a wisteria design and gilded with gold tendrils and fine silk embroidery on skirts and trims, and abstract tortoiseshell and tiger patterns were hand painted by fine artists and printed on to layers of silk, chiffon and duchess creating a contrast in scale and intricacy. Existing Fromental designs were hand painted, hand embroidered, and gold leafed across the collection, whilst velvets appear either brushed and bruised, or as fluid devoré achieving an overwhelming richness of texture.