The Delights of Richie Richardson

Don’t tell me you’re going to interview a fashion designer and not worry about what in the world you’ll wear to the conversation.

As it happens, the fashion designer you’re meeting that day rises from his desk, gives you a warm, earnest hug and instantly becomes your new best friend, so that what you have on goes to the very bottom of the list of anything that crosses your mind again. And I can’t help but think that he does that with everyone who enters his world, regardless of how they’re dressed.

“When you arrive in a new place, the place gives you gifts that are intangible, and you become part of it. I wanted to become part of Franklin County,” he says, “and I wanted to bring a new fashion diversity to this town.”

The words “Fashion Designer” imply to many an exclusive, haughty world that most of us encounter only in magazine ads; photos of models wearing impossible clothing that few in the real world manage to pull off. The whole idea of “fashion” seems an odyssey quite foreign to many, but, Richardson laughs, “Fashion is what unites us in the world! Every morning we decide through our clothing choices how we want to represent ourselves that day.” I look down at the new, cool blue shoes I’d chosen to wear as my best true self for the interview and recognize what he’s pointed out to me.

Even the grungiest clothing creates our daily statements, and Richardson finds that fascinating.  “Fashion is diversity.” he says. “It teaches us about history, cultural influences and connection.”  As for the novel outfits featured in fashion magazines, he says, “Those are run to garner attention to the designer’s name. It’s essentially just attractive advertising to lure the interested in to seek what else they’re creating.”

He also points out that “One out of four people in the world works in the fashion industry.”

When I show what openly passes for skepticism at that statement, he opens his fingers to count off the farmers who raise the materials that garments are made from, dye-makers, machinists, seamsters around the world, all the way to those who work in clothing stores, influencing fashion by what they choose to feature.

And, he points out, “The world thinks fashion can only come from ‘the Industry,’ when, in fact, most fashion in the world comes from people working in their homes and with their families as a cottage economy.” This is the fashion that interests Richardson the most. People who never considered themselves fashion designers, but who create and sew styles they feel represent themselves and their people are the designers Richie and his Turners Falls company FAB most enjoy giving a voice and platform to. His creators come from all over the world, and Richardson takes greatest pride and delight in those from Africa and the Caribbean, worlds not often represented in the realm of high fashion.