“This felt like a Gen Z coffee table book,” Reid said during a break from a photo shoot in London for his eponymous line.
“It’s not as big as a Tom Ford book,” Reed continued, speaking in a clip that sounded like the 1.5x feature was selected on the phone. “I also don’t want to be so arrogant as to think that at 27 years old, I’m good enough to stand next to someone as great as Tom Ford.”
The book’s title references Reid’s gender-fluid designs, which can incorporate male tailoring, dramatic female silhouettes, and flashy androgynous details, sometimes in the same look.
Reed has had a career that could best be described as “impossible,” having dressed like a major pop star before graduating from art school. His story is an enviable one, setting unrealistic standards for generations of future aspiring designers.
Reed grew up in Arizona and Los Angeles. His mother founded a candle company in 1994. His father won an Oscar for his short documentary film in 2014. Harris remembers his parents as being very supportive of his exploration of gender from an early age.
After high school, Reid attended Central Saint Martins College in London. In his first year, he was chosen to model for a Gucci perfume ad, where he was photographed with saxophonist and Gucci muse Zumi Rossouw and Harry Styles.
Stiles eventually became Reed’s first design client.Reid went on to create many looks for Styles, including the dramatic cage dress the singer wore. for Vogue’s cover story It was the first time a man had appeared alone on the cover of the magazine, and it was a big moment for the 23-year-old designer at the time.
Reed’s senior year collection, created in her dorm room during the coronavirus lockdown, became an Instagram sensation and caught the attention of mainstream fashion media outlets such as Women’s Wear Daily.
After graduation, the Standard Hotel in London gave Reid a free room. He used the hotel as his home and studio.
“I lied to the owner and said I was offered a stay at another hotel, and she agreed to give me six months,” he said.
Reid has ADHD and describes himself as “severely dyslexic,” which made writing the book difficult. “Everyone kept joking that it was the longest sentence of my life because I speak in one sentence,” he said.
He collaborated with author Josh Young, who had been friends with Harris’ parents since before she was born, to create the book. Much of the book is culled from voice notes Reid recorded on the Eurostar during his commute between Paris and London.
Translating Reed’s words to the page was a challenge for Young. “His thoughts come out so fast and furious that it’s hard to follow, but somehow they all come together,” Young said.
Simply put, “fluid” is A chronology of his career, historical inspiration for his designs, and the techniques he developed.
Reed tells how he and a friend had to sleep on the floor of their dorm room so they could put their big hats on their beds undisturbed.
The giant headpiece is one of Reed’s signature features.beyonce Appeared on the cover of British Vogue magazine In 2022, she will be wearing a black feather-like halo designed by him. Iman wore a similar feathered headgear at the 2021 Met Gala.
Reid herself wore a (very) wide-brimmed black hat on the cover of Fluid, paired with a mermaid-cut skirt and a bandeau top that resembled two fists clutching a ring.
His approach may be gender-expanding, but his vision is not necessarily inclusive. “Fluid” is filled with images of his muses and models, almost all of them lithe, lanky, and long-limbed.
Reid has addressed issues of bodily diversity and representation in her work. He described how, after his modeling job, he broke down in tears after seeing his body photoshopped to become thinner and thinner.
“My dream was that it wasn’t an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog or a Victoria’s Secret catalog,” he said. “Have I just constructed another archetype of something called fluidity that is completely unattainable?”
After years of therapy and the support of friends, he now feels safe and shamelessly pursuing his artistic vision.
“This idea, the key word, of my liquidity is that it’s mine,” Reed said. “I don’t represent everyone.”
Last year, Reid was appointed creative director of French fashion brand Nina Ricci. At the time, he was also being courted by two other fashion brands, but he cannot reveal his name due to confidentiality agreements.
“I chose Nina because basically two other very straight CEOs would spread out in meetings and tell me what to do,” he recalled. “Nina Ricci was a queer CEO and a gay man who was just like, ‘What do you want?’
A job like his at Nina Ricci is usually the end goal for fashion designers. He is unusually young and inexperienced for such a position, and admits there was an adjustment period within the company after he took over.
“It was just, ‘Who is this long-haired giraffe person who is our new boss?'” he said.
But Reid is confident he can make it happen. “I’ve always been a person who follows my own will in everything,” he said. “I’m not here because I took the easy way out or compromised my beliefs.”
What the muses depicted in “Fluid” have in common is unwavering self-confidence. Photos of Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, and Lil Nas are scattered inside.
Another name that has appeared several times? Julia Roberts. When I asked why she appeared in his book, Reed seemed as surprised as I was.
“It probably comes from being a gay kid watching ‘Notting Hill’ and ‘Pretty Woman’ back-to-back with my mother,” he says, adding that Nancy Meyers’ I veered off topic about my love for movies.
I wasn’t expecting the Nancy Meyers mention. But that might explain the big floppy hat.