Daryl Kerrigan cast all non-models to wear her Spring collection. Why? "That s my job, really—making real women feel beautiful," the designer said. And if anyone can claim to know women, it s Kerrigan, who spends lots of time interacting with shoppers in her Bond Street boutique. The Daryl K customer isn t every woman, though. She s decidedly downtown, likely tattooed, and almost certainly on a first-name basis with doormen at grungy but happening venues to which she might wear a stretchy satin dress or a jumpsuit in washed-out denim. There were viable options for the office, too, such as a bias-cut blazer with a bit of swing and an ecru sheath. Kerrigan-isms—like slashes, button details that are decorative as well as functional, zips—were worked in throughout a collection that was timely, even as it looked back at the Irish designer s body of work. Of the current trendscape, Kerrigan could say, "Been there, done that"; the difference is that she s one designer who truly knows how to keep it real.
