Backstage at Steven Stokey-Daley’s fall 2025 show, the designer cited Kate Bush, Maggie Smith and Marianne Faithfull as his “three idols in the world.”
He channeled their British style and maverick energy into this coed show, which was larger than ever, with 42 looks, and lots of outerwear and knits. One burgundy sweater had the phrase “Stay Faithfull to Marianne” stitched on the front, referring to the iconic singer who died at the end of January.
Models stomped to the beat of the Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths and Faithfull, wearing floral jacquard bomber jackets with leather lapels; check trenchcoats; oversize, cropped duffle coats, and flirty jackets with leather patches with a Mod edge.
It was full of color. The designer drew inspiration from the Scottish Colourists, an artistic group that included Samuel Peploe, John Duncan Fergusson, Francis Cadell and George Leslie Hunter.
A dress and a trenchcoat were hand-felted to look like the artists’ landscape and portrait paintings. T-shirts were printed with London scenes such as Big Ben, and dogs and ducks by an imaginary heath. Perhaps it was Hampstead Heath, where Stokey-Daley’s investor Harry Styles lives, when he’s in London.
All the trenchcoats, checks and little symbols nodding to Britain’s cultural history were charming, but they also may have been an audition for Burberry. As reported, Burberry’s chief creative officer Daniel Lee may be leaving the company, and Stokey-Daley would be an ideal candidate to succeed him.
