Richard Quinn Plies Debenhams With Prints, Volume for Exclusive Collection
QUINN CITY: It’s been a busy year so far for Richard Quinn, winner of the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design. He’s been working with Liberty on clothing and accessories collections, and has a second collaboration lined up with the British department store Debenhams.
His first 11-piece dress collection for Debenhams hit the shop floor earlier this week, while the second will launch for spring 2019. The lineup includes many of the designer’s signatures, such as large floral prints and voluminous silhouettes. Prices range from 69 pounds to 149 pounds.
“It was an effortless collaboration and it’s always nice to have different entry points. Perhaps the girl who doesn’t shop at Net-a-porter or Matchesfashion can now have a Richard Quinn garment that is still intrinsically ‘us,’” said the designer of his decision to collaborate with the store.
The collection, which retails for a fraction of Quinn’s original price point, already has a bestseller, according to Christine Morgan, director of public relations at the store. It’s a sheer paneled floral-print dress. “People have been actively searching it out and we’ve had a really good reaction to it so far,” she said.
While some of the prints were created exclusively for the Debenhams, a few were drawn from Quinn’s personal archive. “We’ve kept it more to his handwriting than to ours,” Morgan said. “It is quite a brave range for a store like Debenhams, but we haven’t tamed it down too much or diluted it — which is a great thing.”
In addition to Liberty, Quinn has also worked with H&M in the past. The designer made headlines earlier this year when the Queen sat in the front row of his fall runway show and later presented the designer with his award.
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