S.S. DALEY Spring Summer 2023 at London Fashion Week

Love, longing, gender, class: for spring/summer 2023, S.S. Daley looks at the letters between Vita Sackville-West and Violet Trefusis, queer women who navigated patriarchal confines of aristocratic English society. Daley uses their words from the 1910s and 20s to continue his exploration of privilege and power today, introducing new pieces that work across gender for the ever-evolving S.S. Daley world.

“In their letters, there’s a sketch of Vita and Violet arm-in-arm, walking around the south of France. They’re all in black, Vita in a tuxedo, and it’s this moment of connection when the tone of their letters is increasingly sad, when they cannot be with one another. The emotion of that moment fills this whole collection,” says Steven Stokey-Daley.

Cotton twill utility sets are printed with florals, as if for Vita to wear in her garden at Sissinghurst, with tie fastenings taken from old school caps. Calico shirts are printed with 1920s seed packet illustrations, while a white merino wool sweater is embroidered with the image of a shed in Vita’s garden, as if found on a china plate.

Sheer voile pintuck shirts are a summer version of an S.S. Daley staple, while Daley’s balloon sleeve voile shirts are cut to floor-length, with slits at the side, turning the shirt into a gown encouraged for all genders. There are also Irish linen wide-cut summer shirts, the cloth woven specially for Daley, with a single pleat running under a little coin pocket.

Vita and Violet always referenced bunnies and hares in their letters, which appear throughout the collection. A jersey long-sleeved muscle top has ties that attach into the raglan, embroidered with the words “BUNNY BOY”. Meanwhile a cotton laced polo shirt has two hares dancing on the front, as if Vita and Violet in hare form, and a full trench coat is printed with an 1700s etching of a hare.

Daley continues to push experimentation in cut, like a circular floral-printed trench, the body of which is cut from one piece, its only seam at the shoulder. On the catwalk, underpinnings are used to play with volume, but the trench the perfect cut to give swing to everyday life.

Black linen suits have confident construction at the shoulder and in the body, then fluidity in the sleeve and wide leg, the lapel with hand-finished white stitching. It’s worn over a mist blue silk shirt that’s darted for shape. There are patchwork shirts, made from commemorative tea-towels. The patchworks also appear on bags, Daley’s first accessories.

Silk short-sleeve shirts are printed with a photo that Daley took of his bedroom wall, where a tapestry hangs over striped wallpaper. Meanwhile white T-shirts are duct-taped with real roses under the words “LES FLEURS”. Photos of the real flower pieces will be taken at the show, to be printed onto T’s for production.

Eyewear is debuted this season in collaboration with Dan Levy’s DL Eyewear. There are two key frames – one rounded and one more square – that play on 20th century English eyewear figures from across the class divide.

Footwear has been made for S.S. Daley by Malone Souliers, including lace-ups, tassel loafers and slip-on styles.

Vita and Violet are represented by two black morning coats, one with ballet ribbon details on the sleeves, the other at the ankle. One of these looks features a strapless gown made from a blown-up pair of S.S. Daley oversized trousers, worn high at the chest. It’s a moment of real and surreal, collapsing time, gender and notions of privilege, to let humans just be themselves.