Fashion mourns with show in Queen’s honour
RICHARD QUINN closed an unusual London Fashion Week yesterday evening in the most fitting way possible, with a newly created black collection complete with lace veils and bold embroidery dedicated to the late Queen.
When news of Queen Elizabeth’s death broke, the designer’s original collection was almost finished. But instead of opening the show with a single mourning dress, as other designers chose to, he made from scratch more than 20 intricately designed all-black looks that quickly became one of the highlights of London Fashion Week.
“We wanted to be appropriate,” he said backstage. “Usually 10 days before a new show we’d never do something new, but it was our way of mourning.”
For reference, Quinn looked to the clothes the Royal family wore when George VI and even Queen Victoria died: heavy veils, long, embroidered skirts and tight bodices.
Quinn owes much of his career to the late Queen. He launched his namesake label in 2016 and was thrust into the spotlight after Her Majesty made a surprise appearance at his London Fashion Week show in 2018 to present him with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.
In 2018, Quinn created a collection full of swing coats, silk headscarves and vibrant floral prints that referenced her Balmoral wardrobe; on yesterday’s show at the Lindley Hall in Westminster, models walked down the catwalk in black headscarves and black crowns. Halfway through the show the original colourful collection came out, but as the show closed and black confetti fell from the ceiling, it was the mourning outfits that everyone remembered.