TALENT AND TECHNOLOGY - HOW RICHARD QUINN BUILT AN INTERNATIONAL FASHION LABEL WITH EPSON
Richard Quinn’s creative and practical skills drive his vision. “I started using Epson technology as a student and continued using Epson’s technology when I founded my brand. It's always been a strong partnership and one that has grown alongside my business.” - Richard Quinn
Richard Quinn graduated from Central Saint Martin’s University, London in 2016.
Over the last six years he has built a highly successful fashion brand supplying VIP’s, celebrities, international retailers and clients around the world.
His talent was recognised very early in his career - winning the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British design in 2018. After just 2 years in business, this was an outstanding achievement for the young designer.
Richard’s creative and practical skills drive his vision. His hands-on approach is fundamental to his creative success, blending reinvented vintage patterns with powerful colour pallets with bold, tailored silhouettes. All of which is achieved from a small studio space in the heart of Peckham, London - where design and print (strike-offs and production) are created within hours not weeks. With Epson’s dye sublimation technology onsite, both sampling and production are in-house and deliver a print capacity of 100m per day. Giving the studio absolute control of all aspects of the creative process, from design to print.
Offering customised collections alongside bespoke garments, his floral prints and one-off pieces dress women from all demographics. His printed collections are diverse, playful and powerful.
“Here at Richard Quinn, we do all our colour tests in the studio through the Epson printers - which is really important to us because we move at such a fast pace. When we're looking at dye sub printers, Epson is our go-to print technology. We use the Epson SureColor SC-F9200 and the SureColor SC-F9300.”
“For us as a brand it's really important that all our prints have consistency, and they're accurate to what we see on the screen. I think the uniform way in which the Epson printers print the fabric allows us to use it not only for show samples, but for production as well. I started using Epson technology as a student and continued using Epson’s technology when I founded my brand. It's always been a strong partnership and one that has grown alongside my business.”
Going further Richard added:
“I think as a designer to have printers that you can test your fabrics on and print colour tests and strikeouts within your own space is quite unusual. And I think that's where the technology really benefits us. We can develop collections at such a fast pace - without having to send and outsource print to different countries. So, it also cuts down on emissions. Printing in-house offers us both commercial and environmental benefits.”
London Fashion week has previously been the launchpad for new collections. But Richard’s team once again decided to push the boundaries and offer a new, engaging format to their vibrant audience. Over the last few years online sales have accelerated across the fashion landscape, this digital surge demands new format for marketing and sales. It was time to inject new creativity to the launch agenda – content that could be used beyond the traditional catwalk.
Richard Quinn explained “This time we wanted to rethink it in a really creative way. The whole idea was to come up with a story and a new narrative, almost like a world of Richard Quinn, offering a cinematic take to create a fashion film.”
Richard’s brand is synonymous with luxury and opulence. His work redefines the boundaries of fashion and offers a refreshing and playful return to couture.
“Working to a cinematic brief created new opportunities and diversified the printed materials required: “This season we printed onto many different substrates - more than we ever usually would - because there's so many different elements to this film: garments, printed taxis, millenary, flooring and backdrops.”
“Almost everything that you see printed within the film was produced using Epson printers, which consistently deliver the high quality that we demand. We're able to print hundreds of metres per day so what usually would be quite daunting challenge was actually quite straightforward and easy to plan.” - Richard Quinn.
