Richard Quinn - Backstage

Image Credits: Padi Photos

There's a real energy that exists backstage before a show, it sits somewhere between chaos and a well-oiled machine. The Richard Quinn AW26 show was exactly that, and being a part of it felt like a genuine privilege.

Walking backstage, what struck me immediately wasn't the frenzy you might expect, but the organisation. Every person knew their role, and had their stations to work from. Runners and dressers moved with direction. Hair and Make-up artists were constantly in motion, retouching and correcting blemishes that appeared. Set designers had built something genuinely spectacular, a geometric black and white space, sharp, clean, and striking, the kind of backdrop that makes a photograph take care of itself.

Image Credits: Padi Photos

Of course, it wouldn't be a fashion show without the occasional hurried dresser or a voice raised above the noise, but those moments were fleeting. The kind of thing that reminds you this is real, live, human work being done at pace.

When the show began, all of that backstage energy translated seamlessly into something beautiful. The models moved with real elegance, considered and assured. The geometry of the set framed them perfectly, and Richard Quinn's designs did what they always do, held the room's attention in its entirety.

But what stays with me is the layers. The dressers working at speed in the wings, the content teams, photographers, PR, the assistants keeping everything and everyone in exactly the right place at the right time. And then the details that most people never consider. There were people employed specifically to keep the floor spotless. That level of care and thought does not happen by accident.

Image Credits: Padi Photos

A show like this is the product of dozens of people doing their jobs exceptionally well, most of them unseen. So that Richard Quinn can do his. The spectacle belongs to his vision, but getting it into the room, onto the runway, and out into the world? That belongs to everyone backstage too.