Hey, I Like Your Style! Inside the wardrobe of Melbourne-based lawyer Harry Reid
IMAGE VIA @harrrryreid/INSTAGRAM
WORDS BY DAISY HENRY
“When your gender expression doesn’t necessarily align with either, you kind of have to make up your own rules.”
We know personal style is a journey (I’m looking at you, Tumblr years) and our series Hey, I Like Your Style! dives into the fashion psyche of our favourite creatives. We’re talking about the good, the bad and the 2007.
While the internet has made our fashion icons feel closer than ever before, even the most effortless outfits came from a closet with some (well-dressed) skeletons. Clickable product tags, photo archives and lives chronicled in 30-second clips just don’t tell the full story.
For more fashion news, shoots, articles and features, head to our Fashion section.
There’s a brilliance behind the way we choose to express ourselves and at FJ, we know every outfit has a story. For this instalment of Hey, I Like Your Style!, we enter the wardrobe of Melbourne-based lawyer, Harry Reid.
Harry’s style is, in his own words, an artful balance “between preppy chic and total slag” – think satin flares, crop tops, silk shirts and chunky jewellery. But this wasn’t always the case. Having grown up in the New Zealand countryside, Harry remembers when wearing thrifted Doc Martens was enough to make him the subject of ridicule. For a time, this meant chinos and dress shirts were high on rotation.
Harry’s style evolution has gone hand in hand with the actualisation of his queerness. “I have gotten so much more comfortable with not only my sexuality but also my gender identity,” he says.
Though they’re looking to make the move into modelling and styling, Harry’s day job (which sees him working as a discrimination and employment lawyer) was initially a tightrope, causing them to toe the line between binary expectations of what men and women are expected to wear. “When your gender expression doesn’t necessarily align with either, you kind of have to make up your own rules,” he tells me.
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Hey Harry! Tell me about yourself and what you like to wear.
My name is Harry Reid. I’m 26 years old and am originally from Aotearoa but I’ve been living in Naarm for a little under two years. According to LinkedIn, I’m a discrimination and employment lawyer, but I’m trying to delve more into the fashion industry through freelance styling, modelling and most recently, volunteering as a runway assistant for Melbourne Fashion Week.
In terms of what I like to wear, my style is quite varied and can range anywhere from preppy chic to total slag. So long as it’s sufficiently c*nty I’m happy.
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What has your style evolution looked like?
I think my style evolution has gone hand in hand with the actualisation of my queerness, to the point where it’s difficult to say which came first. I think back to when I came out nearly twelve years ago and I was wearing chinos and dress shirts as if I was living in a business casual purgatory. Since then, I have gotten so much more comfortable with not only my sexuality, but also my gender identity. I’ve traded in the chinos for miniskirts and the dress shirts for crop tops. So I think it’s safe to say I have gained confidence in the way I dress and thank god for it.
Have you ever felt like you needed to fit into a particular fashion box?
Growing up in the countryside, I definitely felt like I needed to dress a certain way so as to not out myself (though I suspect there were various other giveaways…). I remember wearing a pair of thrifted Doc Martens on mufti day [free dress] when I was at a single-sex school and I got so ridiculed that they barely saw the light of day until I transferred to a school in the city.
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Fast forward to when I started working in the legal profession and I felt like a fish out of water (not altogether uncommon as a triple pisces). The industry has some of the most antiquated expectations about what ‘men’ and ‘women’ should wear, so when your gender expression doesn’t necessarily align with either, you kind of have to make up your own rules. I remember showing up to a client meeting in a gorgeous brown pinstripe suit and apparently the absence of a tie, paired with my visible queerness, was grounds to scold me for being unprofessional, messy, and told I couldn’t be taken seriously in the industry (I actually can’t stress enough how cute I looked though).
I’ve gradually made more of an effort to resist any societal expectations about what I should or shouldn’t wear. I haven’t necessarily perfected this, but I think I’ve reached a point where I’m so much more confident in who I am and I think that’s now reflected in my distinct sense of style.
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Do you have any fashion regrets?
I think for a lot of queer people the awkward teenage years happen in their twenties when they have the freedom to start expressing themselves more. It’s not that I necessarily regret my fashion choices from this period as I was just fucking around and finding out, but some of the outfits I wore when I started exploring my femininity were pretty questionable.
There was this one look where I repurposed a vinyl miniskirt as a tank top and paired it with these skintight snakeskin pants… Let’s just say that the vision was there but the execution was off.
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What are the most expensive and least expensive items in your wardrobe?
It depends on whether we’re talking what I paid for or what the items are actually worth because I’m great at sourcing a deal. If we’re talking about what I paid, then probably my Proenza Schouler Chrystie bag, but if we’re talking about what things are worth then either my vintage Louis Vuitton briefcase or my Roberto Cavalli handbag (the latter of which retails at $1700 and I got it for $100).
As for the least expensive, I have so many miscellaneous thrift store finds for as little as $2. The most recent of which was a pair of black knee-length cargo shorts which are very Nom*d. I love mixing and matching the higher and lower-end things to create a confusing bricolage somewhere in the middle.
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What is the most meaningful piece you own?
I think my dad’s Hugo Boss leather jacket. It’s very Matrix-coded with the most buttery, beautiful leather. I remember when I was a kid, my parents would drop my siblings and me at our granny’s house when they were going into the city for a night out and they would have their matching leathers hung up in the back seat. I always thought they were so cool, so I’m very happy to now be the beneficiary of one.
Where does your style inspiration come from?
I don’t know if my style is influenced by specific people in as much as it is influenced by both queer culture and pop culture generally. They are both so full of interesting references to draw from, build upon and make your own.
That said, if I had to pick someone in particular that influences my style it would probably be a tie between my friends Tayi and Helena as they make some of the boldest fashion choices out of anyone I know.
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What fashion piece are you saving for right now?
I actually don’t have my eye on anything in particular (I tend to let my pieces find me), but a Jean Paul Gaultier mesh top is one of my most coveted pieces, so I’m constantly keeping an eye out for the right one.
What are the wardrobe items you wear on repeat?
I try to challenge myself to spread the love in my wardrobe and come up with new combinations of things, but my Roberto Cavalli satin flares definitely have a good cost-per-wear ratio.
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Otherwise, I can’t say no to a silk shirt, so possibly one of the ten different coloured ones I’ve accumulated over the years. It’s very token-gay-character-in-early-2000’s-media of me but what can I say, they work for every occasion (especially when paired with the Cavalli flares).
Who are your favourite local designers?
Sabi the Label, Wackie Ju, Millie Savage, Strateas Carlucci, Pussy Pour Homme and Salt Murphy (originated in Naarm but now based in Paris).
Keep up with Harry here.
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