Henry Holland

Henry Holland

Henry Holland is Britain’s most daring designers who rose to fame with his Fashion Groupies t-shirt collection of 2006 with bold, rhyming phrases like ‘I’ll tell you who’s boss, Kate Moss’ and ‘Cause me pain, Hedi Slimane.’ On the runway, the collection was presented by various designers wearing t-shirts with each other’s phrases. What sets Holland apart from the rest of the crowd are his quirky, bold yet cool designs that scream ‘Wear me!’

The high-street fashion designer, blogger and businessman from Ramsbottom, greater Manchester was born in 1983. He studied at The London College of Printing and tried his hand at styling and editing for fashion magazines like Bliss and Sneak before he turned into a designer. In 2008, Holland’s fast and furious career was on full throttle with the success of his own label, House of Holland which was quickly found on the racks of Barney’s, Harrods and Urban Outfitters. The following year he launched his pro charity perfume with designers like Philip Lim and Richard Nicoll as part of the Six Scents Project; benefits of which were given to Pro-Natura Charity. His fragrance was based on coconut and vanilla notes. ‘H! By Henry Holland’ was exclusively designed for Debenhams in 2010.

Dubbed as the master of collaborations, Holland had a lot on his plate that year with designing the packaging for Wrigley’s Extra, a hosiery range for Pretty Polly and a denim collection for Levi’s. Most lately, he helped Elegant Touch launch a patterned false nail collection. He was also the designer of a skiwear line for Roxy. In 2011, he created another famous collection of t-shirts with acronyms like WAYSB that means, ‘What are you saying babes?’ In 2012, once again Holland was part of much collaboration. He teamed up with Le Specs and created a collection of sunglasses under the name, Henry Holland for Le Specs. The collection campaign became famous for featuring Iggy Azalea. In 2013, he came up with a new eyewear collection called Cagefighters. In July 2013, he promoted House of Holland’s e-commerce website by turning an ice cream van into a pop up store and sold limit edition t-shirts of his new fashion house.

He is also known to be an active blogger. In July 2013, as part of promoting his label’s website, he started blogging on Vogue UK’s website where he displayed what he wore everyday for one whole month.

This year, Henry Holland’s creation was a 60’s inspired dress with cracked chocolate mimicked by layers of fabric and sequins to mark Magnum’s 25th anniversary. It took more than three months for the dress to be completed and its worth today is well above five thousand pounds.

Holland also made some notable media appearances. Frock Me, a fashion series which was co-presented by Henry Holland with Gemma Cairney and Alexa Chung. In 2010, Holland was made the judge on Styled to Rock alongside Nicola Roberts on Sky Living with Rihanna being executive producer. The show was all about giving Britain’s underground fashion designers the opportunity to create outfits for icons in the music industry like Katy B and Cheryl Cole.

The designer known for his appealing wordplay has a fan following of many stars like M.I.A., Ioanna Gika and Adwoa Aboah. He currently resides in North London at Primrose Hill.