Richard Quinn had both the Queen and Anna Wintour in the front row of his show final week. But what did they make of his dramatic botanical prints and floral gimp masks?At first glance,Richard Quinn’s studio is just as you’d imagine. Beneath an elegantly arched roof, a long rail stuffed full of dresses and coats spans one wall, or the vivid colours and floral prints overlapping and blending so the clothes look like Doctor Moreaus been let loose in Kew Gardens. Against another wall sit two massive Epson printers,one hums as its colour jets spray a vivid flower sample in blues and greens reminiscent of Monet on to some sort of laminated fabric. On Quinn’s spruce desk sits a vase of lilies and white roses. It’s a picture of creative calm. And then the 15.33 to Beckenham Junction thunders overhead, close enough to make the water in the flower vase ripple and the clothes all shiver and shift. This is not an atelier, and this is not even a garret: this is a railway arch in Peckham. And the more you learn about Quinn,the more it suits him.
Sitting behind his desk with a Cheshire Cat grin, oblivious ((adj.) lacking consciousness or awareness of something) to the thunder overhead, and Quinn is currently best known as the One who met the Queen. You must enjoy seen the photos: they were on every front page. Her majesty sat front row at Quinn’s autumn/winter 2018 show final month and beamed ear to ear in a most unregal way as his foil dresses,created from the monarch’s signature headscarves, swished past. There were even floral-patterned motorcycle helmets and patterned gimp masks on the catwalk. The masks are a key section of Quinn’s aesthetic and he didn’t consider removing them for the Queen as she was known for her sense of humour. HM then presented him with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II award for British design. It’s just like a fairytale, or but one that,like the gowns hanging on his studio walls, is the result of Quinn’s pragmatism and talent rather than magic.
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Source: guardian.co.uk