Opened and closed by none other than Sir Ian McKellen, S.S. Daley once again invited us to step inside an intricately woven world. Known for putting on immersive performances, guests were summoned to get comfy atop freshly made beds as they waited for the next chapter of Daley’s story to unfold. Ian McKellen’s synonymous voice billowed around the cavernous basement reciting a reading of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Coming of Arthur before he emerged dressed in a silk sailor’s cap and navy peacoat adorned with a nude male form. Titling his FW23 collection The Ninth Wave after Kate Bush’s 1985 seven-track concept (originally released as the b-side to her seminal record Hounds Of Love), which sought inspiration from the same poem read aloud by McKellen, Steven Stokey-Daley took us out to sea.

Inspired by newly-discovered tales of his great-grandfather’s nautical history, alongside a tapestry of queer narratives, the Liverpudlian designer pushed his namesake brand into uncharted waters. Painting a portrait of a sailor transcending time, collars were elongated, nautical stripes were reimagined with SS logos and loosely slung silk neckties cascaded down low-buttoned shirts. In an imagined seafaring uniform, shirts were shredded and worn with sequinned briefs alongside hand-knitted balaclavas. Technical dressing appeared for the first time in the form of a hooded cagoule with asymmetric fastenings accompanied by brown cotton cargo pants with lieutenant pockets on the sides.

The brand’s core codes remained, as knitwear was decorated with life-drawing prints or dried flowers, Wedgewood china plates were secured onto silk dresses and tied-keyhole details crept into necklines. Suit jackets were cut with exquisite sailor collars, seamed with contrast hand-stitching, rounded off with handmade ceramic buttons and worn atop silk shirts – debuted by Harry Styles at the Brits last week. Womenswear was imbued with a sensual touch: bias-cut silk gowns, sequin trims and delicately cut silhouettes evolving his woman of last season.

Speaking on his collection, Daley said, “Listening to The Ninth Wave by Kate Bush, I found the whole universe in it. I do see clothes as music, and this feeling for the collection overtook me in a way that I couldn’t ignore. The pull of the water has led us to a fresh new world, one that’s about the confidence of being who I want to be.”