From the Queen to the high street: Meet rising star Richard Quinn

From conquering the high street to courting the Queen: Emma McCarthy meets rising star Richard Quinn
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Emma McCarthy5 June 2018

Even in the context of fashion’s fast pace, Richard Quinn’s ascent has been swift.

Last month, the 28-year-old design wunderkind amassed countless column inches when he dressed Amal Clooney for the Met Gala and a week later, Thandie Newton for the Baftas.

But it was back in February that the Lewisham native, who graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2016, was catapulted into the global spotlight when the Queen made her first f’row appearance at his debut show to present him with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.

Overnight, Quinn’s face was splashed across the front page of every newspaper from here to Timbuktu. Not bad for a designer of whom no one had heard a year ago.

The Queen attends London Fashion Week AW18

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What with the furore, you’d forgive Quinn an ever-so-slightly inflated ego. But when we meet at his studio, tucked away in a railway arch in Peckham just a few arches down from the scaffolding yard his dad has had since 1996, the man before me, grinning broadly and dressed “head-to-toe in George at Asda”, is refreshingly normal.

“I didn’t think the Queen thing would be so big everywhere,” says Quinn, humbly, as a passing train rumbles overhead. “My friend was in New York and she was sending my pictures of the Fox News building with my name going around it. That was crazy.”

He’s equally understated about dressing one of the most admired women on the planet for the biggest fashion event of the year. “Anna Wintour came to my show and said to Amal; you should ask Richard. After a phone call, Amal came to Peckham to do the fittings. She was so nice. We’re all about nice people.” Wait, did he just say Amal came to Peckham? “She was just really normal and relaxed,” he confirms. “We get lots of questions like, how long did it take you? How many people slaved over it? But it wasn’t like that. We just made it, in like three or four days. It wasn’t like we all died over it. I don’t think it should be like that.”

Richard Quinn's AW18 collection at London Fashion Week

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Despite the chilled-out vibe behind the scenes, the result was a look that stole the show. In a nod to the theme — Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination — the floor-sweeping mullet train skirt-over-trousers was strewn in a print of roses and lilies, chosen by Clooney for their religious connotations, and foiled to give it a stained glass effect. It was bang on brief. But not overblown. As Quinn puts it, “we didn’t want to be too literal and stick a crucifix on her”.

Amal Clooney at the Met Gala 2018
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Certainly, Quinn is keeping his feet firmly on the ground. He admits he’s “far more likely to get star-struck by someone from daytime TV than your typical celebrity”, and that he gets as much thrill from seeing his designs in real life as on the red carpet. “One of the best moments I’ve ever had is seeing someone walking down Oxford Street wearing my H&M stuff,” he says, referring to his recent collaboration with the brand.

It is for this reason that Quinn has joined forces with Debenhams on a 12-piece range of velvet evening dresses and floral jumpsuits. Comfortably priced between £65-£130, the line offers the high street shopper a fashion-forward option in the dreaded occasionwear category. “I want to see girls who I grew up with wearing these dresses at a wedding,” he says, namechecking his three sisters. “I think fashion should be aspirational but I don’t think it should cut people off.”

Richard Quinn for Debenhams (Debenhams )
Debenhams

Quinn’s shrewd understanding of the commercial side of fashion, coupled with his fascination with the manufacturing process — he describes the TV show How It’s Made as “like porn” — has helped his growing brand to flourish. Along with his eponymous label and numerous collaborations, which includes an accessories line with Liberty due to launch next month, he has turned his Peckham print studio into a spin-off business, working with big houses such as Burberry as well as offering students and young designers an affordable place to print.

Social media has proven a powerful marketing tool too — no doubt helped by the fact his Instagram following jumped from 17k to 50k in the 24 hours after his royal encounter.

“If we’ve got 300 extra T-shirts we can put a post up and I guarantee loads of people will turn up at the studio. It’s a direct link to the customer.” After Thandie Newton’s Baftas appearance, he received a torrent of DMs asking where to buy his label. “Now I can answer Debenhams,” he says with a smile. “That to me is success. That’s a brand.”

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