BFC to honour Richard Nicoll with dedicated Pantone colour

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Feb 15, 2017

The British Fashion Council has announced that London Fashion Week February 2017 will commemorate the late fashion designer Richard Nicoll, who died in October last year from a heart attack aged 39, with a colour dedicated to him.

Titled Nicoll Blue, the bespoke colour was chosen by a group of his close friends and developed by the Pantone Color Institute.

The main entrance to The Store Studios, the central hub for London Fashion Week, has been painted in the shade and a minute’s silence will be observed just before the Central Saint Martins MA show on Friday 17th February.

“Richard was a designer whose talent and character inspired all around him. He registered his affinity for the spectrum of blues hundreds of times in the collections he showed in London. For a decade, Richard’s life-enhancing gift for bonding people together contributed immeasurably to the spirit of a whole London fashion generation,” said BFC ambassador for emerging talent Sarah Mower.

“Modest and humble, yet at the same time lively and playful Richard Nicoll’s Nicoll Blue embodies the elegance and sensitive spirit of this much beloved designer whose innate kindness, loving soul and good natured sense of humour held a special allure to all that entered into his orbit,” added Laurie Pressman, VP of the Pantone Color Institute.

The London-born designer graduated from Central Saint Martins MA in 2002 and emerged as a member of the new wave of London talent with an original take on modern sportswear. Nicoll received a Newgen award in 2006 and was the winner of three accolades from the Association Nationale pour le Développement des Arts de la Mode (ANDAM).

He was continuously lauded for his work as a freelance designer for Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton, and the creative direction of Cerruti 1881, Fred Perry and later of youth label Jack Wills.

The designer launched his debut menswear line at London Collections Men in 2012.

In addition to the Pantone colour, the BFC said plans are underway for a multifaceted, retrospective exhibition, set to launch later in the year.