AW24

The S.S. Daley autumn/winter 2024 collection explores the unique sensibility of institutionalised British formality, juxtaposed with states of undress, and the relaxing and abandonment of strict codes evolving to instead embrace a fresh freedom.

The collection takes us on a journey that begins at British boarding schools, a familiar source of inspiration for Daley. Formalwear in academia-appropriate black and white is interspersed with Champagne accents proving a plain sentiment to hint at debaucherous intentions.

This season, a new intimacy abounds as we are taken inside the dormitories. Here, the formality that shrouds these codified worlds is stripped to instead give way to private moments, many of which have happened after long, winding nights of revelry. This manifests best in a look that sees full Oxford tails styled without trousers and so just underwear pairs with. Ties are removed and top buttons undone.

Drawing from EM Forster’s 1911 ‘A Story of A Panic’, the tale of a man’s trip to Italy with his fellow British tourists, we are transported away from the confines of British institutions. Term is abandoned and so too are its enforced regulations. Clothing becomes lighter, breezier. A nightshirt decorated with a painted fish skims the knee, and a yellow fishing coat with a suede collar is paired with its matching hat.

Daley’s affinity with intarsia takes hold as the collection moves on, specifically in the languid silhouette of tapestry blankets in Rowan yarns. Now they are transformed into floor-length collared rugby-style shirts evoking the act of wrapping oneself up for both modesty in stolen moments and offering a comforting embrace. Each is decorated with a quintessentially English motif, from riders on a hunt to a vase of wildflowers. A cardigan also plays host to leaping lambs, that youthful sense of joy akin to a schoolboy finding academic respite out of term. Duty still finds itself amongst these more languorous moments, though it’s now told in a manner of inheritance. For instance the brown wool coat is inspired by vintage British military codes.

Prints are inspired by archival patterns from vintage wallpaper finds, such as an ecru tailcoat embroidered with lifted floral motifs. Another tailcoat moves in an opposite direction decorated with trompe l’oeil to become a trench coat hybrid. Its split aesthetic proves representative of the whole collection’s intention, where the familiar signifiers of the British wardrobe — from pyjamas to uniforms to wax jackets — are reimagined with Daley’s unique disposition that continues to challenge his native country’s sartorial legacy. Honouring it while also moving it forward.