Richard Quinn Spring 2026: ‘The Grandeur of Occasion Dressing’

Naomi Campbell opened Richard Quinn’s spring fashion show on Saturday night, which started more than one hour late, giving arriving VIPs plenty of time to preen for photographers on the stone steps in front of Sinfonia Smith Square, a concert hall in a former church built in English Baroque style.

Many of them wore black evening confections with demonstrative white satin collars, similar to the lovely velvet column Campbell wore for her spin on the plush beige carpet, backed by a live chamber orchestra, singers, crystal chandeliers, swag curtains, dense flowers arranged nearly to the ceiling, and a wooden pipe organ freshly waxed.

Quinn spares no expense in creating a transporting backdrop for his demure glamor of yesteryear, which falls somewhere between Victorian strictness and “Gone With the Wind” theatricality. When the designer bounded out for his bow with his facial scruff, grubby black cap and T-shirt, a nickname sprang to mind: Demna of the Debutantes.

He’s settled on a formula of materials, embellishments and silhouettes: tight bodices, bulging skirts, dense crystal or floral embroideries and blurred florals, punctuated with meaty bows and fabric rosettes. Sometimes it feels like déjà-vu, and sometimes these elements come together in ways that can take your breath away.

An intricately bedazzled black high-low bustier dress, splayed over one of his white tulle meringue skirts, was among these stunners. Other gowns with corseted bodices that erupted in fishtail skirts past the hips were also beguiling.

Quinn called his show “A Night at the Opera,” though it was tracks like Erasure’s “A Little Respect” that brought a lump to your throat. The heft of his designs made for some awkward runways strolls, the heavy satins and layered tulle catching on the carpet, bringing fret to the models’ faces – the inflappable Campbell excepted.

But kudos to Quinn for knowing his clientele, sticking to his stylistic guns, and carrying the torch for what he calls “the grandeur of dressing for an occasion.”