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Iman in Dolce & Gabbana Harris Reed: An Insider Look
Updated: Apr 22
The Designer:
Harris Reed is a British-American fashion designer and creative director for French fashion house Nina Ricci.
Started with a phone call from Anna Wintour + her team inviting him to first ever Met Gala with the support of Dolce & Gabbana’s atelier to create his biggest, most fluid vision
Step 1: The Sketch
Went straight into researching Pinterest books
Anything to bring inspiration before sketching process
Images that really stood out:
18th Century Cages
Idea of taking up a space in the way of ‘I deserve to be here and I own it’
Trickled in from seeing 1920s showgirl references, Bellini films, cage that was built for a chicken coop
Trickled in from seeing 1920s showgirl references, Bellini films, cage that was built for a chicken coop
Running theme of grandeur and this larger than life idea
Step 2: Personalization
Iman had to love what he did
The designer jumped on a call with Iman, sketch in hand, and nothing more than a little dream and a little piece of paper
The designer jumped on a call with Iman, sketch in hand, and nothing more than a little dream and a little piece of paper
Step 3: Materialization
The support of Dolce & Gabbana atelier gave designer access to dream fabric
Make or break situation
If it is the wrong fabric, the outfit is destroyed
What is going to create the rays?
Designer decided it was feathers
Had this vision of it being these really intense rays
Wanted Iman to look like a beam of light
Had to try so many different kinds of feathers to really get the right texture
Found a local supplier in London who had the exact amount of stock and could do a treatment to them that would then allow designers to do gold leafing, gold appliqué, and the gold fan brushing technique
Step 4: Construction
Trousers, bustier, cage, and hat- order of completion
First thing they started with were the trousers
Flare had to be just right for Iman
Help of interns
Hand crafting each leaf and gold appliqué
Have to hand sew each of the layers of the feathers onto the crinoline
5 hoops in total, bottom hoop is the biggest one
Over a day to do the first three, could take another few days to complete
Business manager must figure out how they are going to get the design shipped to New
Working with delicate pieces
Celebrity did not see outfit until it was complete
Had to do quick try on in New York
First fitting ever, making sure trousers fit and seams are giving amazing support
Step 5: Day of The Met Gala
Designer talks about how doing an outfit of this magnitude without any previous fittings, they knew they were going to have to do some tweaking but didn’t realize how much tweaking they were going to have to do
Spent 400 hours in total making the skirt from the start in London to the finish in NY
Whole crew of people assembling outfit when Iman gets to gala
Step 6: What You See on the Carpet
After all of those steps, this is what viewers can expect to see on the carpet