Grazia (UK)

At the end of the day… Harris Reed

- HARRIS REED MAC x Harris Reed, from £16, maccosmeti­cs.co.uk

24, FASHION DESIGNER harry styles’s go-to gown-maker on pulling out the stops for nights in

I’m currently at the Standard Hotel, which is completely abandoned, because I was meant to have a two-month residency before Covid ended up being what it is now. I’m the one resident in the 300 rooms, sewing my collection with three interns, who are all isolating. From 8am to 2am, I’m locked away creating my fluid fantasy.

I did my last collection from home and some of the gowns couldn’t fit in my bedroom; they were pouring down the hallway and into the living room. I would literally be crawling out of ruffles to get to my bathroom. For this one, I was like, ‘It’s a pandemic, we need fucking escapsim.’

I’ve been using things from hardware stores, and my finale look is a reconstruc­ted wedding dress. I bought it from Oxfam, meticulous­ly took it apart, and reused fabrics and parts from it. The pandemic has made me calculate how much of each thing to buy and how much can we reuse, whether it’s from a scrap box of old Solange fabric, or Harry Styles fabric.

The look we made for Harry [for US Vogue] was such a labour of love because we had 48 hours to get it done. When it came out, we couldn’t throw a party, but me and my flatmate got bottles of Veuve Clicquot, wore robes, blasted his album and danced around the room.

The whole inspiratio­n for the MAC collection was really what I do with my work. It was Studio 54, it was glamour, but it also looked back to the ages when men wearing make-up was something that was respected in society.

My flatmate and I always try to make a thing of getting dressed up for dinner, and my boyfriend and I have our date nights set aside on Zoom. I look at make-up and clothes as being tools to not only help you establish a moment in history, but to help you transition and not feel stagnant.

The nice thing about being at home is that before, when we were out and about, we felt pressure to dress for other people, not ourselves. Obviously it’s a bit difficult when you’re dressing up not to go anywhere, but is it more freeing, more liberating and more authentic? 100%.

When I walk in the front door, I say, ‘Alexa, play French cooking music.’ I turn my phone on to airplane mode for 30 minutes, sit down in the living room, rub fresh aloe vera on my face, jade roll and drink tea.

For me, cooking is a good decompress­ant. If I don’t do 2am nights, it’s a lot of cooking, never with recipes, just seeing what they have at the local shop. Like what I do with what I’m designing, you have to take what is available.

That’s sometimes when the best things happen.

QUICK-FIRE REED Big hat or big collar?

Big hat Eyeshadow or lipstick?

Eyeshadow Harry Styles or Mick Jagger?

Mick Jagger Big city or quiet countrysid­e?

Big city

Because I like it grand, I like to change people’s perception­s, my room is white. I have white linen bedding, white silk pillowcase­s and candles. When I’m calling my boyfriend, I don’t want to have socks everywhere.

I go to sleep with a lot of excitement right now. I think about what it is that I’m creating and what the impact’s going to be, hopefully, within the social space.

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