A hedonist streak ran through Daizy Shely’s fall collection. The designer said she was inspired by a strong-willed, independent woman who works hard by day and parties hard by night. Her show notes name-checked Queen Elizabeth I and Catherine Deneuve as a vampire in the Eighties movie “The Hunger.”
The Elizabethan references came via shirts with ruffled necks and sleeves, some worn with contrasting corsets on top. The Deneuve influence could be felt in the fishnet stockings and the ghoulish complexions of the models, who cultivated a general aura of gender fluidity.
“My woman hates clichés about gender,” Shely explained backstage. The designer is equally averse to perfection. “I try to do perfect pieces, but then dirty them with something,” she said.
She worked a deshabille look in creations that ran the gamut from sleek to trashily undone: On one end of the spectrum, a chic black off-the-shoulder jumpsuit; on the other, the finale look pairing Forties-style checked wool pants and a pink negligee with a corset that fully exposed the breasts.
The nudity felt gratuitous: A message of empowerment does not require bared nipples. Shely had already stated her case via riotous combinations of Lurex, fruit prints, colorblock tailoring and dévoré velvet trimmed
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