Billy Reid is an American fashion designer based in Florence, Alabama. His line includes men's, women's, accessories and eyewear. His clothing, self-described as "lived-in luxury," is known for its classic styles in high quality fabrics with unusual accents and Southern influence.
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Early life and education
Reid grew up in Amite, Louisiana ( ay-MEET), just south of the Mississippi border. He helped his mother operate a women's clothing boutique located in his grandmother's home. Reid's hobbies included outdoor activities in the surrounding Southeast Louisiana wetlands. Reid attended Southeastern Louisiana University and then the Art Institute of Dallas to study fashion design and merchandising. While still at the Art Institute, he started working for Saks Fifth Avenue. After his time at Saks, Reid worked for 6 years at Reebok International, travelling across the globe for the first collections of Australian golfer Greg Norman. He later did freelance design for Fruit of the Loom, Neiman Marcus, and J. C. Penney.
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Brand
Reid launched his men's collection under the William Reid label in March 1998; his women's collection launched a few seasons later. The William Reid brand was focused on wholesale account partnerships rather than directly-owned retail stores; the Fred Segal and Stanley Korshak stores were the main wholesale partners. At the time, Reid lived in Dallas and commuted frequently to New York City. Charles Moore, legendary photographer of the Civil Rights Movement, shot the first photos for the brand. He received the CFDA Best New Menswear Designer award in 2001.
Economic effects arising from the September 11 attacks forced him to close the business in Spring 2002. Reid then moved to Florence, Alabama, his wife's hometown, where she grew up in a household of nine children. Florence is just across the Tennessee River from Muscle Shoals, famous for its recording studio, where The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, and others have recorded.
Reid's post-9/11 business model built up a small namesake chain of shops which reflected his "personality and his aesthetic" - loaded with antiques, family heirlooms and reclaimed architectural materials; they "took on a very personal, warm and hospitable environment." Wholesale still accounts for about half of the brand's revenue.
His company headquarters is still in Florence, Alabama in a historic bookstore. Downstairs is his flagship shop and upstairs is his design studio. The brand operates a total of 13 directly-owned stores which have an atmosphere of faded elegance: well-worn chairs and carpets, antique chandeliers, mounted animals, and antique apothecary cabinets. Reid has said: "We're based in Alabama and work in New York; It's the balance of those two worlds that our aesthetic is about." Reid cites Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Perry Ellis as influential American designers, and has named Bill Robinson as "one of [his] biggest influences." Vogue noted the brand's "relaxed charm and rolled-up elegance." In early 2017 Observer magazine called Reid "perhaps the most likable player on the American menswear scene." The Washington Post has described Reid's aesthetic as "worn luxury".
In the US the brand is sold in Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdales. The brand held a month-long pop-up shop in Culver City, California in summer 2017 inside menswear store Magasin; the popup included Reid's made-to-measure service.
Production
The garments are almost all made in USA and made in Italy, using French, Italian and Japanese fabrics. In May 2012 Billy Reid and Natalie Chanin planted a 7-acre field of organic cotton for use in their clothing lines.
Billy Reid eyewear is designed in collaboration with Eponym's design team, and made in Japan. The Optical collection includes a version of Reid's signature personal frames made from sustainable buffalo horn. Sunglasses and optical frames have details such as leather, ultra-light titanium nose pads, Italian acetate, and gradient lenses.
Clientele
Actor Daniel Craig purchased the Bond Peacoat at the Billy Reid Nashville store while shopping with Kings of Leon, and a few years later wore it in the 2012 film Skyfall; this exposed the brand to a wider audience. The coat was named after Bond Street, the location of the brand's flagship store in New York City. In Spectre, actor Ben Whishaw as Q wore the Billy Reid Astor Coat. Mike Faist, John T. Edge, Ethan Hawke, and Idris Elba are also fans of the brand.
Shindig
Reid hosts an annual festival of "friends, musicians, chefs, artists" in Alabama called Shindig, which started as an informal gathering of close friends and was held for the 8th year in late summer 2016. That year, attendees included musician Jack White, musician Alison Mosshart of The Kills, model Matthew Mosshart, the band Dawes, Tony Award winning actor Alex Sharp, musician John Paul White and The Watson Twins, jewelry designer Pamela Love, Chef John Besh, Chef John Currence, Master Brewer Roy Milner of Blackberry Farm Brewery, former Bloomingdales men's fashion director Josh Peskowitz, and designer Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin. Shindig #9 will be held in Muscle Shoals, Alabama on the weekend of August 25-27, 2017.
Retail locations
Billy Reid monobrand stores are located in:
- Atlanta (Buckhead and Westside Provisions)
- Austin, Texas
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Chicago (Fulton-Randolph Market District)
- Dallas (Highland Park Village)
- Florence, Alabama
- Houston (Westheimer Road)
- Nashville
- New York City (Bond Street in the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District, and West Village)
- New Orleans (Magazine Street)
- Washington, DC (M Street NW)
Collaborations
Every year the brand produces a line of K-Swiss/Billy Reid sneakers.
Reid, Derek Lam, Reed Krakoff, Simon Doonan, and other fashion industry experts form the advisory board for the Cadillac/CFDA Retail Lab mentorship program, which provides a $75,000 grant along with business development, marketing, and PR assistance for six up-and-coming designers annually.
Billy Reid is a corporate sponsor of the Southern Foodways Alliance, and the brand produced a capsule collection of T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps and chef aprons to promote the member-funded nonprofit organization; 20% of proceeds from the collection benefited the Southern Foodways Alliance.
The GunRunner Hotel in Florence, Alabama has a "Billy Reid room" featuring a ladder and sleeping loft.
Awards and honors
- 2001 CFDA Best New Menswear Designer (as William Reid)
- 2009 New York Magazine Best Men's Store in New York
- 2010 GQ/CFDA Best New Menswear Designer in America Award
- 2010 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Prize
- 2012 CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year
- 2017 Observer American Menswear Power List #1
Personal life
Reid is a fan of the New Orleans Saints, and designed a custom black and gold football from Louisiana wild alligator leather for an NFL Super Bowl 50 charity auction.
Reid coaches his son's baseball team, which in 2016 made it to the Cal Ripken Baseball World Series in Aberdeen, Maryland. Reid designs the uniforms for the team.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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