S.S. Daley Men’s Fall 2024
Seeing Sir Paul Smith take in his seat front row inside the Mannerist artworks-filled Salone del Cinquecento venue in Florence had already boosted anticipation for the S.S. Daley show Thursday night.
When press notes were deployed after the display ended, the audience was left flabbergasted. Not only had it witnessed a great show, in which the 26-year-old designer Steven Stokey-Daley lingered on a romantic, languid and queer vision of British sartorial legacy, but it was also getting news Harry Styles was becoming a minority investor in the brand.
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The pair has been linked since Styles tapped into Stokey-Daley’s graduate collection for his “Golden” music video’s attire, courtesy of the former’s stylist Harry Lambert.
S.S. Daley’s fall show was a concise display of the British creative’s ability to twist codes from his native country, toying with proportions and references as disparate as Brit photographer Dafydd Jones’ “The Last Hurrah” series centered on ’80s upper-class parties — rife with black ties and tailcoats — and E.M. Forster’s 1911 “A Story of a Panic” about a boy’s carnal awakening in Italy.
Poking fun at the debauchery of the well-mannered and wealthy Brits, Stokey-Daley opened the show on tailcoats worn pantless or bare-chested that morphed into trenches and a great example of out-of-bed-chic, a quilted duvet turned cocooning puffer trimmed in curtain ropes. Pleats on shorts and chino pants were pushed to the side to make bottoms look like pleated skirts, while striped tailoring in lightweight, summery fabrics riffed on formal pinstriped suiting. The preppy boy nighttime attire was plied into shirting-inspired pajama sets with frilled hems and crocheted tank top-slash-short dresses with a home-y, lived-in feel.
“I love it because it kind of feels like an extension of Savile Row in a way, and where Savile Row is maybe not so alive now. It feels like it’s more alive here,” Stokey-Daley said backstage.
Fully embracing his naif creative ethos, the designer paraded intarsia sweaters with childlike motifs of sheep and carrot-hunting bunnies, as well as argyle vests mingling with rugby shirts turned into exquisite ponchos bearing signature English tapestry patterns, from riders on a hunt to wildflowers. One of the most famous of all bears, Paddington, made a cameo — in the all-yellow rainproof look comprising a bucket hat, fisherman jacket and mary jane shoes, part of S.S. Daley’s inaugural footwear line.
“The point is that he’s a very creative boy,” Smith said minutes before the show started. “He has an interesting way of presenting the clothes. He loves the dandies of the past. People used to dress in a very special way. I think having him [at Pitti Uomo] is important when a lot of the brands that are dominating the world of fashion are very similar [to one another].
“It’s nice to see [there is] an opportunity for a young designer,” he added.
After Thursday’s show and news, no one could argue that this opportunity wasn’t well deserved.
Launch Gallery: S.S. Daley Men's Fall 2024
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