The Australian fashion designer Richard Nicoll has died at the age of 39.
Nicoll – who was based in London for much of his career – was a stalwart of the London fashion community. After graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2002, he created designs for a number of esteemed houses (Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs among them), worked as creative director at Cerruti Paris and was a frequent exhibitor at London Fashion Week for almost a decade.
His practice was multifaceted, also encompassing collaged graphic works with artist Linder Sterling from A/W 2009 onwards, a 2012 bridal range for Topshop and S/S 2015 collaborations with Sweaty Betty and Disney.
He closed his eponymous label in 2015 to start the next chapter of his career as creative director at Jack Wills, a position he left earlier this year, returning to Australia to work on a number of projects. He had recently accepted the job of creative director at Adidas in Germany, which was due to commence in January 2017.
In 2015, Nicoll contributed to Wallpaper* Handmade, creating a pair of globe-shaped, Bohemian-style decanters with Czech glass masters Moser. Earlier this year, he created a futuristic reflective dress, conceived to offset Philippe Rahm's 'Spectral Light' in our W* Design Awards 'Best Bright Ideas' photo shoot (W*203).
Wallpaper's thoughts are with all his friends and family.
Earlier this year, he created a futuristic reflective dress, conceived to offset Philippe Rahm’s ’Spectral Light’ in our W* Design Awards ’Best Bright Ideas’ photo shoot.
For Wallpaper* Handmade last year, Nicoll ventured beyond the fashion realm with luxury glass manufacturer Moser. He delved into the archives of the Czech brand to design these globe-shaped decanters, inspired by the brand’s hundreds of floral patterns.
For his brand’s tenth birthday and spring/summer 2014 collection, the designer offered a rose-coloured view of the future with his diaphanous pastel-pink layers mimicking the show’s bubble-gum hued benches, scooping a 2014 Wallpaper* Design Award for his efforts.
His practice was multifaceted, encompassing a number of collaborations including with activewear company Sweaty Betty (pictured, for his S/S 2015 womenswear offering).
Nicoll jumped right into the sporting swing of things for S/S 2015.
Nicoll’s menswear collections sway between almost jailbird uniformity and opulent dandyism – his S/S 2015 offering struck a happy balance between the two.
’Easy opulence’, ’textured simplicity’ and ’modernist romance’ were the attractive contradictions that the designers threw about for his A/W 2014 presentation.
At London Collections: Men A/W 2014, Nicoll demonstrated a punchy bravado that was a departure from previous shows.
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