Top image: Portrait of Richard Nicoll courtesy of Jack Wills

The British Fashion Council will commemorate the late designer Richard Nicoll during London Fashion Week, with a bespoke colour called, “Nicoll Blue”. The colour was chosen by his close friends and developed by the Pantone Colour Institute as a special tribute to the designer’s work. According to Sarah Mower, BFC ambassador for emerging talent, he registered his affinity for the spectrum of blues hundreds of times in the collections he showed in London.

“Nicoll Blue” will be seen throughout the Store Studios, the central hub of LFW, as a way to remember and celebrate the designer. The main entrance has been painted in the shade and the BFC has announced plans for a retrospective of Nicoll’s work, which will be mounted later this year. In addition, there will be a minute of silence observed just before the start of the Central Saint Martins MA runway show at the BFC Show Space on Friday 17th February.

The London-born designer who was raised in Australia died from a sudden heart attack, aged 39, in Sydney, last October, just a couple of months before he was due to start a new role as creative director of Adidas in January.

Central Saint Martins educated, Nicoll established his label in London in 2005 and became well known for his modernist aesthetic. In 2008, Nicoll won three Association Nationale pour le Développement des Arts de la Mode, or Andam awards.

He was a two-time British Fashion Council Vogue Fashion Fund finalist and the creative director of Cerruti’s women’s wear label from 2009 to 2011. After closing his label in 2015, Nicolls worked at British brand Jack Wills before relocating back to Australia last year to focus on freelance projects.