Introducing Tanya Taylor’s alter ego, Delphine.
The New York-based designer on Wednesday is debuting Delphine, Taylor’s new evening and occasion wear label inspired by an alter ego she created years ago when applying to Parsons School of Design and before launching her namesake label.
“I was in this rough patch of life where I had broken up with my boyfriend, sitting in a dark living room, and I was trying to put together a mood board of my dream muse — why I should go to Parsons and why I should be able to build a brand — thinking of what that life might look like,” Taylor said. “I took Tory Burch’s head and I pasted it on Bianca Jagger’s body, put it in the middle of a board and gave this fictitious character the name Delphine Pratt. To me, she was the coolest French girl you’d ever imagine.”
Taylor said she was manifesting who this girl was, which was who Taylor wanted to become.
“I had never been to New York before, and I really wanted to jump into that with a sense of courage, freedom and spontaneity. I just thought that it was kind of fun to build this person that maybe I didn’t have the confidence to be at 21 years old but I knew I wanted to become,” she said.
A look from Delphine.
Courtesy of Delphine
Taylor’s imaginary muse stayed within her orbit. During her time at Parsons, Delphine was the voice in her head giving Taylor permission to stay up late and explore new places. Fast forward to Taylor’s very first runway show after launching her namesake contemporary label in 2012, and she even sent physical runway show invites to the fictitious character, at Taylor’s personal address.
After 10 years at the helm of the Tanya Taylor brand — getting close to their customer, building a label that she said feels stabilized and tapping Adrianne Kirszner as chief executive officer, Taylor said it…