After showing in London last September, a visit to the British Isles, where New Zealand-based Rory William Docherty was born, meant a homing instinct turned into something fruitful for his pre-fall collection. “We established a connection with Harris Tweed,” the designer said of the highly regulated and protected traditional fabric. That visit to the windswept Outer Hebridean Isle of Lewis and Harris sparked something in Docherty, who has Scottish roots. “It was really inspiring to see that level of craftsmanship that’s been around for centuries,” he added.
After viewing first-hand how single-origin wool was hand-woven on looms, he took to his pastels and oil paints—Docherty’s usual first step in creating a collection—to recreate an abstract rendering of the signature herringbone chevron. He “exploded” these onto silk shirts and ties, a dress with tiered bubble skirts and a sumptuous silk velvet coat with a shawl collar and the jutting exaggerated shoulders of seasons past. In Docherty’s way, he enlisted a local quilter to stuff it with 100% New Zealand wool (he has also included glass-blown beads, Scottish cashmere and the work of hand-knitters from India in his support of local makers). He wanted to amplify craftsmanship but in something practical and durable. “That’s sort of what I want my clothes to be: a balance of both the practical and poetic,” he said.
It’s why his pieces gently evolve each season: he makes them to last, like his own blue velvet jacket inherited from his dad that has made it 47 years in his own wardrobe. Though his shapes picked up from the ’70s and ’80s informed draping and broad shoulders, he imbued pieces with warmth. This time there was more enveloping, in loose funnel necks, brushed wool stoles, balloon trousers in a shade of purple heather, and shirting constructed from complex loops and folds in cotton pinstripe that could be pulled up into a hood at will.
Doherty is a manual, tactile designer, and his crushed silk velvet in a black tunic dress or layered under sensible suiting brought the feeling of the human touch to evening-skewed material. The idea was to take a fabric you usually need to be precious with, and create something that can be scrunched into a suitcase then taken out and whipped on. The same went for taffetas in champagne and dusky pink, amethyst and sky blue—colors inspired by iridescent dancing sea foam catching the light.
The through line in all this was a feeling of connection, underscored in particular by one piece—an overlay of trapezoidal panels of ebonized wood from Aotearoa crafted by Docherty’s partner, designer Jordan Draffin. With Māori and Scottish heritage, the pattern mimics both traditional tukutuku panels, a traditional Māori woven art, and the shapes of Harris Tweed herringbone. “This is a very unique pattern, but it’s kind of like there’s a similarity that links all cultures. And I felt that’s a really lovely thing, especially at the moment,” said Docherty. Designing with intention and heart is an edifying proposition—and it’s one his customers are responding to.
