NYLON - March 2008 - (Page 84) SPECIAL K DARYL K HAS MADE A CAREER OUT OF DESIGNING CLOTHES FOR HERSELF, AND WITH HER NEW DIFFUSION LINE, KERRIGAN, NOTHING HAS CHANGED. BY ANDREA CUSICK. PHOTOGRAPHED BY LOUISA BAILEY Daryl Kerrigan couldn’t care less what the ‘everyday’ American consumer wants in their wardrobe. Nevermind that her new line, Kerrigan, will be sold in every Nordstrom across the United States and the regular shopper at such a department store is your ‘everyday’ consumer. Kerrigan designs to suit herself, but, luckily, there are plenty of people out there who want to dress like her too. Clad today in her favorite staple of stretch leather leggings, the Ireland-born, New York-based fashion designer admits her work can’t be 100-percent personal indulgence. “I am interested in sustaining a business, and in an environment where just about everybody is ready to rip off anybody else who is making cool stuff…” she says, trailing off. “Basically,” she finishes, “we rip ourselves off before someone else does.” Beginning her career back in 1992, Kerrigan created impeccably cut low-rise jeans, which were then copied—or should that be ‘translated’—by every brand worth their denim thread count, and for which she won a Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion in 1996. She continues to show her main line, Daryl K, during New York Fashion Week and runs a successful store downtown on Bond Street. Kerrigan says that she wasn’t one of those gold star fashion students destined to be a well-known designer, though. “I went to art school and studied the basics for the first year. When I kept making clothes out of the painter’s canvas and other fine art fabrics, it became pretty clear to me where I really wanted to go,” she says. “But they failed me at fashion in college, so I didn’t pursue it until about five years later.” Pleasingly, for the legions that flock to Kerrigan’s biannual sample sale in hopes of finding previous season’s discounted pieces, her new line is priced significantly lower than Daryl K. But unlike many designer diffusion lines, where the initial idea sounds amazing but in reality the buttons fall off, sizing is inadequate, and fabrics seem cheap—it is just as well-constructed as her main collection. “There is so much crap being produced these days that the less I contribute to that the better,” she says. While it looks completely different—featuring tops with drawstring necklines, silk belted tunics, skinny pants, and barbed wire-print dresses fastened up the side with snaps, all in a palette of neon pink, blue, and orange mixed with deep blue, red, and white—Kerrigan definitely has its designer’s signature style. “Kerrigan is what I would wear today if I was 21,” the designer says with a laugh. “That doesn’t stop me from wearing most of it, though. My goal is to make women’s lives better through their clothes,” she continues. “I know it helps me to have a great day when I’m wearing kick-ass clothes, and I meet women every day who tell me the same thing.” stylist: virginia stevenson. hair and makeup: lisa aharon using bumble and bumble and chanel. model: megan k at elite. dress by kerrigan, ring by alexis bittar.
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