Independent designer Taylor Dorry has created the ultimate summer dress
SpyThis South Florida talent's upcycled maxi dresses are already the most coveted summer look on Instagram. Hurry up if you want yours too
By Julia Hobbs
"When you grow up in Florida, fashion doesn't matter much what is said," designer Taylor Dorry, 33, releases with fine irony, via video call from her studio. In the background, on her Zoom screen, I see a donkey loaded with her one-of-a-kind baby-doll dresses, each one meticulously handcrafted from reclaimed home textiles and ideal for dressing maverick princesses. from today. Born and raised on the Hollywood coast (in Florida, not California), the story behind Dorry's eponymous brand ticks all the boxes for a movie tale. Her designs, coming entirely from upcycling –and about to hit social networks–, were close to not even existing.
For years, she hid her passion for fashion and turned to political science as she secretly amassed an extraordinary collection of vintage clothing. "She had some amazing clothes that I felt really comfortable in," she says Dorry, adjusting her oversized aviator sunglasses. However, her days in her shadow were numbered (her today she wears one of her bedside garments, “a used bedspread from a hotel that I turned into a baggy babydoll top,” layered over a T-shirt from a metal band). It didn't take long for her to move to Miami to work as a styling assistant, a second occupation in which she found great success thanks to her keen eye for the most ravishing vintage.
“I was hooked on how special you feel when you wear those clothes and I went from sourcing items for fashion editorials to selling them myself. The pieces that I like the most are the ones that make me nostalgic in such a way that they transport me back to when I was little and tried on my mother's clothes”, she tells us.
Such aesthetics became business plans that led her to sign up for a fashion design course. “I kept picturing a little girl, like, dusty sneakers and knotted hair, trying on her mom's 80s sequined, puffy-sleeved dresses and feeling super special. That was the key, I wanted to recreate that childlike femininity that we lose as we get older,” adds Dorry. “From the first day of school, she already knew exactly what she wanted to learn. 'Hey, when do we get to puff sleeves? And how is this dress made, is it the width times five?'”, she laughs (the dry, very dry humor that is spent on the brand's IG account is, by the way, another of its commercial strengths).
In May 2020, the designer opened her virtual store and launched her one-person company. Today, she does it all by herself. "Since everything is recycled, most of the time I go to second-hand stores and clearance stores, looking for the fabrics that blend best."
Shortly after, her balloon silhouettes took off on social networks: actress Zaina Miuccia was one of the first followers, letting herself be seen on the streets of New York in Dorry's stunning 'Sophia' dress, combined with padded pink flip-flops (the artist Chloe Wise, musician Lou Doillon, photographer Bella Newman and model Fiffany Luu are other fans).
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For the record, Dorry never does things by halves. The Sophia babydoll has almost five meters of vintage fabric. Another outstanding piece of the collection is the Lola flared dress, whose ruffled hem now only requires more than five meters of fabric (and which, like the previous one, is currently out of stock). "Today alone, about 8,000 people have asked me about my dress," Miuccia wrote on Instagram. “I love how special you feel with them. Everyone looks at you, but in a good way”, emphasizes the designer, music to the ears of anyone who is already thinking of going out dressed to escape from the black hole of social isolation that we live in 2020.
As for the scale she desires for her business, Dorry sees to it that her supply of vintage fabrics respects the needs of other second-hand seekers. “When I go to thrift stores, it doesn't occur to me to wipe out the entire aisle of $3 sheets or drapes. I set strict limits with each store. Also, I don't buy fabrics that are less than 20 years old."
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It is also behind launching its first capsule collection by the end of 2021, when it will accompany its one-of-a-kind upcycled pieces in a line of sustainable and organic clothing. She promises to bring us slightly tighter dresses and a Laura Ashley-esque throwback jumpsuit.
But there is another key reference that powerfully permeates her style. Could it be that Taylor Dorry's unflappable modernity also champions Florida's lesser-known cultural face, filtered through the eyes of a new generation? Dorry confirms it. “I haven't always been proud that I was born and raised in Florida, because everything there goes a little bit to her ball. The older I get, the more I realize that Florida is cool in its own right; marine themes and the beach look can be interpreted in another way. That's what I am, and I'm not going to deny it."
In Romelda's studio
15 photosBy María José Pérez Méndez
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