THE STYLE PRODIGY

Fashion writer Laura Craik meets young designer Harris Reed, pioneer of gender-fluid' couture

“Slow” is not a word that figures in Harris Reed’s vocabulary. He talks fast, he works fast and he lives fast. How else did he become the youngest ever creative director of Nina Ricci, the storied Parisian fashion house he’s helmed since 2022?

He also presides over his own eponymous fashion brand (launched in 2020, shortly after leaving fashion college Central St Martins), has collaborated with Dolce & Gabbana, M-A-C and Missoma, and has dressed celebrities including Selena Gomez, Emma Watson, Beyoncé and Adele. And all before reaching his 27th birthday.

Most people wouldn’t have enough life experience to write an autobiography at 27, but most people aren’t Harris Reed. And so he did, setting out to redefine fashion for the modern world with Fluid, published last year.

“I always imagined these were things that I’d do in my 40s or 50s,” he says. “Cut to being a business owner in my early 20s, going to the Met Gala at 25 and becoming a creative director at 26…”

While his achievements are precocious, Harris himself is not. “I really didn’t know how to do anything else” is how he modestly describes his path to becoming a fashion designer. “I was always obsessed with the power that clothing has, and the way that it completely changes how you feel. As I went through high school and grew older, I knew that I wanted to be able to create with my hands, and make clothes that provoked emotion.”