HARRI's first ready-to-wear collection fuses whimsy with the everyday. Drawing from previous works, the collection is designed to be lived in, not simply observed.
Earlier sculptural and inflatable silhouettes often existed most fully as image or performance: shared, analysed, and circulated visually, yet remained distant from daily interaction.
This tension became the starting point for MuseumWear: an exploration of how expressive form could shift into garments capable of inhabiting everyday environments without losing their imaginative impulse.
MuseumWear emerged from recognising that spectacle alone is not the destination. Instead, it marks a point of transition, a space between art experienced and art carried through London.
The Gallery Wanderer
The concept extends to the figure of the gallery wanderer: an individual moving through cultural spaces, absorbing and contributing to them in subtle, almost unconscious ways. This perspective situates the garments within live observation rather than theatrical display. The wearer is not positioned as a spectacle, but as a participant navigating art, architecture, and city life simultaneously.
This intention was reinforced through casting. Selected by Lylai Mari of Ikki Casting, the runway featured creative professionals whose practices align with the collection's values. Among them were hair artists, stylists, and sustainability advocates Scott Staniland and Brett Staniland, known for their commitment to environmental responsibility within fashion. Their presence grounded the collection in reality, aligning MuseumWear not with fantasy archetypes, but with individuals actively shaping contemporary creative culture.
London based creative director Jordan Kelsey, whose portfolio consists of work with Perfect Magazine and Jorja Smith, finalised the pieces and styled them to perfectly lay out HARRI's vision.
The Barbican
The setting further amplified this narrative. Presented against the backdrop of the Barbican Centre, where art and culture converge and thrive, the collection entered into dialogue with one of London's most iconic cultural institutions. The Barbican's Brutalist architecture, defined by concrete forms, sharp geometry, and layered spatial pathways, mirrors the structural logic embedded within the garments themselves. Its position as a multidisciplinary arts venue also reinforces the collection's premise: clothing existing within an ecosystem of art, performance, and public interaction. Here, MuseumWear was not isolated on a runway, it was placed within a living cultural framework, echoing its intention to move from display into daily experience.
The soundscape, composed by Sarathy Korwar, deepened this atmosphere. Korwar's practice blends jazz, contemporary improvisation, and Indian classical influences, navigating hybridity, rhythm, and heritage with fluidity. His layered compositions reflect the same negotiation present within the collection: tradition intersecting with experimentation, structure softened by movement. The music did not simply accompany the garments; it underscored their cultural and emotional context, reinforcing the dialogue between South Asian heritage and contemporary London identity that runs throughout the brand's evolution.
Materials and Construction
Unlike previous collections that leaned more heavily into overtly avant-garde silhouettes, this ready-to-wear offering marks a deliberate expansion. Denim and leather are introduced as key materials, tempering the high-gloss immediacy of latex and inflatable forms. This shift does not abandon the brand's foundations, instead, it recalibrates them. Black polished latex shirts remain, now paired with embroidered dark denim trousers. Inflated silhouettes appear with greater restraint. Wooden beaded vests and bags continue to reference craft and heritage, embedding cultural lineage into construction.
Several denim pieces feature motifs inspired by artefacts and artworks encountered in museums and galleries, subtly reflecting the intellectual curiosity of the imagined wearer. These references operate quietly, not as literal reproductions, but as textural and compositional cues that allude to preservation, framing, and reinterpretation.
Throughout MuseumWear, silhouettes retain structural presence while responding fluidly to movement. Materials are chosen not only for visual impact but for tactility and longevity.
Layering becomes a functional system rather than a styling afterthought, allowing garments to shift character depending on context. Built for practicality, but not sacrificing creative instincts.
From Spectacle to Participation
Together, the casting, location, music, and material evolution signal a broader shift within HARRI. MuseumWear reflects a moment of transition: from spectacle to participation, from image to interaction. It proposes that garments can hold imagination and accessibility in equal measure, not reducing artistic intent, but allowing it to circulate more freely through the city, the gallery, and the everyday. By translating sculptural experimentation into wearable form, the collection proposes that accessibility does not diminish artistic intent. Instead, it allows it to travel further, existing beyond presentation and within everyday life. It represents not a departure from earlier work, but a progression, continuing to explore imagination, structure, and identity through a new lens of interaction.
Explore the MuseumWear SS26 collection or visit the About HARRI page to learn more about the brand.
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Picture Credits: All images by Dmytro Pochkun @pmytro
