Harris Reed Fall Winter 2025-2026 “Gilded” collection. Story by RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo Courtesy: Harris Reed / Suleika Mueller.
Harris Reed has never been one for subtlety. With a theatrical flair that borders on defiant, the designer’s Fall/Winter 2025-2026 collection, “Gilded,” was a cinematic spectacle. Six months of relentless craftsmanship—fittings, painting, 3D printing, and raw emotion—culminated in a procession of gilded rebellion. This was a performance, a declaration, a gilded battle cry.
A string arrangement of Metallica set the mood—baroque, punk, and unapologetically grand. Then, Florence Pugh took the stage. Draped in a hooded corset gown, its spires reaching toward the heavens, she delivered an incantation that could have been a prophecy or a challenge:
“It is only when we are no longer fearless, that we can begin to create.”
A Gilded Rebellion
Reed, a designer who thrives in contrast—soft and hard, past and future, vulnerability and armor—returned to his roots. Political unease, British punk nostalgia, the theatricality of drag, and the rigid femininity of the Victorian era all collided in a collection that built upon his lockdown-era beginnings. This time, however, it was executed with even greater conviction, and, of course, gold.
The show opened in monochrome, each piece traced from the sharpie pen that Reed wields like a conductor’s baton. Then came the cobalt blue, a rich interjection of decadence, followed by gold—gilded, commanding, imperial. Gone were the voluminous taffetas of past seasons. Instead, Reed bared the structure itself: exposed crinoline cages, no longer hidden beneath layers, but standing defiantly as both self-exposure and armor.
Armor and Ornament: The Alchemy of Construction
Breasts erupted in gold-leaf spikes, tentacles—3D-printed and hand-painted—snaked across torsos, and a spear-laden corset jutted a full meter from the bustline. The collection felt sculptural, as if Reed were forging his silhouettes in metal rather than fabric.
His admiration for Charles James’ bias draping remained present, but there was something even more radical at play. A collaboration with furniture makers Porta Romana introduced unexpected architectural elements: Georgian-era panniers shaped hips like the limbs of an armchair, basket-weaving techniques borrowed from sofa upholstery reinforced bodices, and material mimicking horsehair stuffing lent eerie texture to structural gowns. This was not just fashion, it was design in its most aggressive form.
Despite its opulence, Gilded was deeply, quintessentially British. Every piece was made in the UK, deadstock Savile Row wool shaped into sharp peplums that flowed into diaphanous chiffon. Luxury, sustainability, and craft existed in perfect contradiction, much like the collection itself.
Fashion as Spectacle, Fashion as Statement
For Reed, there is no such thing as comfort dressing. This is red carpet warfare, a brand rooted in event dressing, where each piece is meant to be seen, scrutinized, immortalized in flashing lights. “Gilded” was not just an exploration of form but a study in power—how fabric, structure, and embellishment can become armor, how spectacle becomes survival.
In a time of uncertainty, Harris Reed remains a designer who does not flinch. He gilds, he sharpens, he exposes. And in doing so, he creates.
See All Looks Harris Reed Fall Winter 2025-2026
