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.
