Steven Stokey-Daley is the Guest Designer at Pitti Immagine Uomo 105, the menswear Trade Show running from January 09 to 12, 2024, with the eponymous S.S. Daley brand. Not even thirty years old yet already internationally esteemed, the Liverpudlian designer will be bringing his ‘made in Britain’ collection to Florence with a catwalk show event staged in his own characteristic style.
"Steven Stokey-Daley transforms the British Upper Class into a Queer fashion fantasy," Francesca Tacconi, special events coordinator at Pitti Immagine. "Despite his youth, Steven’s project is characterized by an expressive maturity, an amused and eccentric reinterpretation of British Heritage, an indifference to gender stereotypes, and a commitment to sustainability.
We love his talent for revising the archetypes of menswear, the uniforms of the most exclusive British high society public schools, capturing the signs of the times and extravagantly subverting everything with subtle irony, playfully amplifying the volumes of his garments, fooling around with the details, working with unexpected fabrics and floral prints. Then there is the almost literary character of his visions that recall the incurably eccentric characters with impeccable manners in Evelyn Waugh’s novels." added Tacconi. "He is certainly no stranger to adventure, this well-educated boy from Liverpool: from his success in dressing global popstar Harry Styles to the prestige of the Lvmh Young Fashion Designer prize. Inviting Steven to Florence means dedicating another adventure to him that will be shared with the international audience at Pitti Uomo. Giving him an opportunity to showcase his stories and project them towards the future."
"I’m honored to have the opportunity to take S.S. Daley’s manifesto of modern British storytelling to Pitti Uomo, the epicenter of menswear design," commented Steven Stokey-Daley, founder and creative director of S.S. Daley.
Founded by Steven Stokey-Daley in 2020, S.S. Daley aims to revisit and dismantle typical ideas of British Heritage, subverting them into a modern context from the perspective of his working-class upbringing. Following his BA at the University of Westminster, Stokey-Daley’s graduate menswear collection, which riffed on the peculiarities of 1900s British aristocratic dressing, caught the attention of eminent names in the fashion industry such as Sarah Mower and Harry Lambert, the latter dressing British musician Harry Styles in pieces from the graduate collection for the ‘Golden’ music video. This led to Stokey-Daley releasing his first menswear collection in partnership with Matchesfashion.com, which has since expanded to include womenswear and accessories.
Stokey-Daley had his London Fashion Week debut in September 2021, collaborating with members of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain to produce an evocative fashion performance piece exploring themes of race, sexuality, and class, which was heralded as a standout show of the season. In 2021 Stokey-Daley was named as a recipient of the British Fashion Council’s Newgen initiative. A year later Stokey-Daley was awarded the Lvmh Prize for Young Designers in June 2022. This was followed by receiving the Foundation Award at the British Fashion Awards in December of the same year.
S.S. Daley stockists include Saks 5th Avenue, Dover Street Market, Matchesfashion.com, Bergdorf Goodman, 10 Corso Como Seoul, and I.T Store.
Pitti Immagine Uomo 105
January 09 - 12, 2024
Fortezza da Basso
viale F. Strozzi 1
50123 Firenze
uomo.pittimmagine.com
Photo: Steven Stokey Daley. Courtesy Pitti immagine/Trisha Ward.
