BEAUTY: Clothing--SS Daley

There were two guest designers at this year's winter edition of Pitti Uomo, the trade show that takes place  in Florence: the American designer Todd Snyder (who showed a decent collection of what was mostly basic winter outer wear) and the rising, talented Steven Stokey-Daley. For Fall-Winter '24-'25, Stokey-Daley showed a collection that is true to his brand so far. He is dedicated to a fascination with and a particular expression of British culture that can be absolutely charming. He is drawn to a moment in the 1920s and 1930s (and maybe into the war years of the 40s) 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. Think "Maurice" and "Brideshead Revisited."

The show notes reference British photographer Dafydd Jones’ "The Last Hurrah" series depicting’80s upper-class party-going culture which played with black ties and tailcoats in a "rich-boy" way, E.M. Forster’s 1911 "A Story of a Panic" about an English boy’s sexual awakening in Italy with a fisherman, and diary entries by an Oxford student in 1935. "He always opened each entry with writing about being 'in Eliot’s room,'" Stokey-Daley said, "so the idea is that this [runway] suddenly becomes this abstracted version of Eliot's room—and it’s more a conversation about that sort of shared living. Underwear, pajamas, sporting wear, boys in tails." Indeed, centered on the presentation area were stacks and stacks of luxurious, white pillows. In the garments, the "sleepover" idea is reinforced with a quilted duvet ("snug as a bug" later shows up on a sweater) turned into a puffy coat trimmed with curtain cording, and tapestry-knit blanket ponchos that give the sense of simply pulling a blanket around oneself in the morning to pad about barefoot while putting the kettle on.

There is also a sweetness of youth to some of the visual themes here as well, with frolicking lambs, and carrot-munching bunnies that look like companions to Peter Rabbit. The fish however, comes from the fisherman in the Forster novel--time to put away childish things as the boy becomes the man. The designer certainly knows how to tell a story

I love this collection for its overall silhouette...regular readers know that I have an attraction to clothing that speaks to time periods past and it is one of the things I love about Armani (read about it here): an expression of something that is not "now." The cut of a coat or a pair of trousers that can evoke the Edwardians, or pre-war or post-war periods is just magical. Stokey-Daley knows how to use these things to great advantage evidenced by the fact that it was just announced Harry Styles is now a minority investor in SS Daley, and Sir Paul Smith sat in the front row for this marvelous show!

https://ssdaley.com/