How many guests can get up from their seats after a fashion show, glide directly into a black-tie-gala, with royalty present, and stand a very good shot at being belle of the ball?
At Richard Quinn in London, there were easily a few dozen, filing into the Dorchester hotel ballroom with skirts far too bulbous for the tight seating, their shoulders ringed with giant satin rosettes at high risk of being crumpled.
The show on Saturday night felt more like a social gathering than a typical fashion show, with VIC’s outnumbering, and outshining, a few bedraggled members of the press who nervously sipped Veuve Clicquot and half-glass Negronis for far too long under the chandeliers of the ornate lobby, fretting they would be late for the Nensi Dojaka show clear across town.
Quinn speaks directly to his clients, as the lion’s share of his business is special orders and bridal. His spring 2025 collection was designed “with the most meaningful moments of our lives in mind” and for women who cherish the “act of dressing for the occasion,” according to the cream-colored card placed on each seat.
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His show could easily slot into Paris Couture Week, an occasion for him to cloak the room in black velvet curtains, build a wall of quivering white orchids as a backdrop, and hire a chamber orchestra and choir to soundtrack his runway.
The collection did not veer far from recent ones, riffing on familiar eveningwear archetypes – regal columns, debutante fit-and-flare ballgowns, fishtail numbers and minidresses – all frosted with dense floral embroideries, neat little satin bows and dramatic frills at the necks and wrist. (Quinn had a lock on demure long before Jools Lebron fired up a TikTok account.)
Sculpted chignons and face nets heightened this unabashed ode to retro glamour. But there were many subtle subversions that fed a subliminal futuristic feeling: Funnel necks on sculpted coats scattered with crystals, and bib fronts as black and shiny as Darth Vader’s helmet on white, peach and sky blue gowns.
About a dozen wedding dresses brought the show to a close, including one alterna-bride in a halter-neck dress and pants built of swishing lattices of delicate beading.
Given this display of haute refinement, you might expect Quinn to stroll out in a top hat and tails. Instead, he bounded out in a black T-shirt, jeans, a ball cap and sneakers, dressing for the occasion in his workaday outfit.
