Richard Nicoll, who has died from a heart attack aged 39, exemplified young London fashion in the 21st century as a talented designer with a subtle, modest style that sustained his own collections for almost a decade while he freelanced or worked on contracts for big labels high and low. Nicoll and the other just-out-of-college designers who revitalised London fashion week in the mid-2000s all had to deal with fast-accelerating fashion output and toughening commercial demands in a gig economy.
The high costs of being creative in London began to impede his ideas as well as his idealism, and Nicoll returned this year to Australia, his childhood home. Despite the constant sweat, he had kept his uncynical nature, always present in his designs – his inexpensive wedding dresses for Topshop in 2012 were clever commentaries on the wedding-industrial complex and also lingerie-like garments that would not hinder a day’s happiness. His best notions were sportswear-shaped and artwork-simple – a handbag with a phone charger, a dress lit up with LEDs (in collaboration with Disney, called Tinker Bell), and plain yet memorable shirts for men and women.
The simplicity-in-the-round may have come from his original plan to be a sculptor. Born in London, Richard was the son of Alan Nicoll, an eye surgeon, and his wife, Robyn (nee Carrig, now Lynch), a lawyer. When he was three, the family, which included his sister, Sophie, moved to Perth. His parents soon divorced and his mother returned to the UK, but Richard stayed on, studying at Scotch college. However, as he grew older, his grunge wardrobe from charity shops made the shy gay teenager far too visible in Perth, and at 17 he went to join his mother in London, where he took a foundation course in sculpture, ceramics and a little fashion at Central Saint Martins art college.
He continued studying there for a BA in menswear design (2000), followed by an MA in womenswear (2002), as a respected protege of the head of fashion Louise Wilson, who inspired and disciplined most of the designers in that mid-2000s creative spike. Dolce & Gabbana bought Nicoll’s womenswear graduation collection, but that wasn’t a career. His later awards – three Association Nationale pour le Développement des Arts de la Mode prizes and Elle’s Best Young Designer – didn’t pay the bills either.
He gigged, starting in Paris for Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton in 2004, while planning his own label back in London, where he showed as part of Fashion East before creating his own line. He also collaborated on costumes and textiles with the artist/designer Linder Sterling, notably on Northern Ballet’s 2013 performance piece The Ultimate Form, dedicated to the sculptor Barbara Hepworth.
Nicoll debuted at London fashion week with a ready-to-wear womenswear collection in 2006, showing a menswear collection from 2012. His gentle sportiness with fine detail attracted celebrity customers who did not want to be worn by their clothes, including the pop stars Lily Allen and Kylie Minogue, and actors Keira Knightley and Julianne Moore, but his financing, especially the cost of the best fabrics and labour, was tenuous. So he adapted his own-label work for the brands Sportsgirl, Topshop and Fred Perry, and the shirtmakers Thomas Pink.
Forever worried about keeping afloat (though uncommonly realistic and good-natured for the business), he was about to give it all up and leave for Barcelona when he was asked in 2010 to be creative director of womenswear for the resurrected firm of Cerruti. However, it discontinued the line after three collections. His subsequent stint as creative director at Jack Wills lasted not much longer, and in 2015 he closed his own label – sales slowing even as demand for new designs intensified – and did not show at London fashion week.
He returned to Australia, where he consulted for Woolmark and played with surfware for the Sydney brand Double Rainbouu. He had recently been recruited as creative director for Adidas sportswear, where he had been expected to start in Germany in January.
Nicoll is survived by his parents and sister.
Richard Nicoll, fashion designer, born 15 September 1977; died 21 October 2016
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