The price point fills the gap between the extremes, Taylor said, of dresses “that are $6,000 or they’re $500 and falling apart.” In terms of fit, sizes up to 14 will be available in stores, and up to 22 via the website. “I have been trained to think about everyone’s body, and I care about that so much,” she notes.
In developing Delphine, Taylor mined her own vintage collection and went in search of new old inspiration, which she observes others are doing as well. “What’s interesting right now is how so many girls are getting to know vintage again. They are like, ‘What’s Bill Blass? Who’s Victor Costa?’ All of a sudden they are seeing these [’80s] shapes that are a little bit more extreme and they’re excited by it. I have a big archive of those kinds of old vintage pieces that have inspired me.”
As always, Taylor used herself as a test subject. As a 38-year-old with an active social life, the designer wanted options other than cut-outs and ruffles. “I couldn’t find that feminine, playful sophistication that I loved in some of the pieces that I’ve collected,” she noted. Those qualities are certainly present in the romantic one-shouldered Molly and Lucy dresses with their many-layered ruffles, the former with a torso-hugging side drape. More dramatic is the strapless Rhett gown with its side wing/pannier shape. Some of the shorter styles, such as the fan-pleated and sashed Evie, the slightly bell-shaped Stephanie, and the flapperesque Olivia could be easily repurposed as layering pieces. Taylor stressed that everything has been designed so that you can actually throw your arms up or get wild on the dance floor without worrying about wardrobe malfunctions.
Listening to Taylor talk about her customers and New York’s nightlife, it’s difficult to imagine how fashion could have been so obsessed with quiet luxury just months ago. The designer is outfitting all the women going to a birthday party inspired by Whit Stillman’s iconic 1989 film Metropolitan. “They want to feel like New York debutantes. For some reason glamour is back in people’s minds. They’re seeing those clothes and they’re seeing how people had fun and I think they want it again. And there’s also a whole new nightlife—New York is on fire. There are so many new clubs. Take Chez Margaux,” she said. It has the most unbelievable red velvet dining room with weird mermaid fireplaces, and Zoë Kravitz in one corner and Leonard DiCaprio is in the other corner, and all these young girls are dancing…. There are no jeans, there are no T-shirts.” The designer says that she and her friends dress up even for small at-homes.