Daryl Kerrigan celebrated her brand s 20th anniversary at her show at Gavin Brown today. It was a quiet celebration—or, quiet aside from the drumming provided by Gang Gang Dancer Lizzi Bougatsos, among others—as the moment was marked solely by the zine-style retrospective of Kerrigan s career that showgoers found at their seats. Young designers with a trendy fetish for the nineties should try to get their hands on that catalog; they ll find plenty of ideas in there to plunder.
As for Kerrigan, she s been plundering herself all along. Today s show proved, again, that she doesn t have much use for novelty for novelty s sake; her collection was full of tried-and-true silhouettes, none more so than the perennial leather leggings she sent out in the show s last exit. Kerrigan has been doing those pants since 1995. "You know," she said after the show, "I have my shop, so I know what works; I know what women come back for. I don t need to experiment on the runway." With that attitude, Kerrigan isn t going to regain her Queen of Cool reputation anytime soon, not that she cares. But buzz factor or not, there was plenty of cool to go around; to wit, the pair of slouchy cuffed shorts in bright red Tencel, the sharp navy jumpsuit with a diagonal zip, those jodhpurs sliced open at the thigh. Also worthy of note was Kerrigan s "jump-dress," a balloon-skirted cross between a dress and a jumpsuit that was the sole new silhouette in the show.
Not that there wasn t news. Many of the coolest pieces in this collection were made in collaboration with the painter Spencer Sweeney, who contributed abstract prints. A boldly colored placement print Kerrigan put on black was especially good, and especially-especially good in a pair of silk slit harem pants. Very easy, very chic; exactly the kind of thing women come back for.
