BEAUTY: Clothing--SS Daley

This is my first post of the work of S.S. Daley founded by London based menswear and womenswear designer Steven Stokey-Daley who just this past June won the prestigious LVMH prize (congratulations Steven!). After graduating from the Westminster Fashion Design BA in 2020 and spending time on the teams at Alexander McQueen and Tom Ford, he has taken up the reins of his own label. Stokey-Daley is dedicated--so far--to a fascination with and a particular expression of British culture. He seems to be drawn to a moment in the 1920s and 1930s through which he explores the changing attitudes, social codes, and expressions of the aristocracy and the upper class at that time in Great Britain as seen through the eyes of a working class designer. Yet as a gay designer, he is also drawn to examining codes of masculinity and femininity, and what they do and don't--or could possibly--mean in a wider social context.

While this might only be his third show, this SS '23 collection at London Fashion Week seems masterful. Inspired by the years-long romance between English authors Vita Sackville-West and Violet Trefusis (while both women were still married!--their husbands conveniently looked the other way), the presentation was quite layered. The show opened with what could have been interpreted as a funereal moment for The Queen--models in black carrying candles walked to the sound of a tolling bell--but it had a meaning immediate to the theme. "The idea of forbidden love is central to queer identity, so I was deeply moved by the love letters between the two women. There’s an incredible image of them where they’re both dressed impeccably well in all black – with Sackville-West in a man’s tuxedo – and they’re arm-in-arm in the South of France, gorgeously unbothered." But the women were in love in an age when same sex relationships were illegal and they were forced to keep their love a secret...forced to deny their love in a public context. So this funereal procession was in effect a mourning of the love that could have been.

But the central theme and look of the show and entire collection was inspired by Sackville West’s famed white garden at Sissinghurst hence the lyrical, garden-inspired imagery including some lovely prints of 1920s vintage flower seed packets as well as bluebell-printed deadstock twill (in fact, S.S Daley is committed to sustainability by only using donated, deadstock and end of roll fabrics!).

In their letters to each other which were read aloud in a dramatized presentation by members of the National Youth Theatre, Sackville-West and Trefusis used the word "rabbit" as code for affection, so Stokey-Daley created hare prints throughout (regular readers may recall I have a great affection for bunnies and I love that trench coat, 14th look below), as well as bunny ears covered in leather, corduroy and striped jersey.

Also of note is the very cute use of the classic English souvenir tea towel--the kind sold for events like Prince Charles and Diana's wedding or a Silver Jubilee--as a pattern on shirts and shorts. And special kudos to Stokey-Daley for including plus-sized male models in his show. Larger women have been a part of many shows over the last several seasons in an effort toward inclusion, but this is the first time men have been represented in this demographic.

https://www.ssdaley.com/