Lone Daf Takes on the Big Apple: The Lone Daffodil at New York Fashion Week

A few days in New York, some new clothes, old friends, lots of cocktails, and a reminder of what this is all really about.

Last week, The Lone Daffodil packed up and headed north for New York Fashion Week.

As a small independent clothing brand from Tampa, experiencing NYC Fashion Week firsthand had been something we wanted to do for a while. We wanted to see the events happening around the city, take in the styles people were wearing, and get a feel for the creative energy that takes over New York this time of year.

But there wasn't necessarily one reason for the trip. There were actually quite a few.

We also have some of our closest friends living in New York City, which gave us an equally good excuse to get everyone together.

And for Dom, it was his first time in NYC.

A Little Work, A Little Play During NYFW

Part of the trip brought us to the West Village, where our friends at Yellow the Label were hosting a four-day NYFW pop-up at Bedford Studio, a coffee shop, workspace, and event space tucked away on Bedford Street.

Dom was in town working alongside our good friend, photographer and videographer Greg Santa Anna, on a project for Yellow the Label. He spent part of the trip in front of the camera as a model and part of it behind the scenes helping with creative direction and production.

It was a fun opportunity to step outside of what we normally do with The Lone Daffodil and work alongside other creative people and independent brands.

One of our favorite parts of doing this work has been seeing how much overlap there is between clothing, photography, film, music, design, and storytelling. During New York Fashion Week, all of those worlds seem to collide.

New York gave us plenty of all of the above.

The Cassis Pant Takes New York

We also couldn't go to New York without bringing something new from The Lone Daffodil with us.

Sarah spent part of the week wearing our upcoming Cassis Pant, giving one of our newest styles its unofficial debut on the streets of New York City.

You'll see plenty of the Cassis Pant throughout the photos from our trip and in the header of this blog. We're incredibly excited to officially introduce this new style soon.

And they won't be arriving alone.

There's another new piece coming that we're keeping under wraps for just a little bit longer.

More on that soon :)

The Best Part of New York Fashion Week Was the People

We went to New York expecting to come home inspired by the clothes, the events, the buildings, the neighborhoods, and the general chaos and creativity of the city.

And we did.

But our biggest takeaway really had nothing to do with Fashion Week.

It was the people.

Over a few short days, we were able to bring together so many friends. Some already knew each other. Some met for the first time. Some we hadn't seen in a while.

We ate together, walked around the city together, grabbed drinks and coffee, worked on creative projects, caught up, and somehow managed to get a lot of people we care about into the same place at the same time.

That ended up being our favorite part of the entire trip.

New York is massive, fast, exciting, creative, and unlike anywhere else.

Tampa is smaller, familiar, growing, and home.

They're completely different places.

But the thing that makes either one special is the same.

It's the people you surround yourself with.

The older The Lone Daffodil gets, the more we realize that community is becoming just as important to us as the clothes we make.

We care deeply about creating clothing from natural and second-hand materials and encouraging a more thoughtful approach to personal style. But we also want the things we create to give people reasons to get together.

Which brings us home.

From NYC Back to Tampa: The Next DAF Cafe

A few weeks before New York Fashion Week, we tried something new at Sarah's studio in Tampa.

We made some coffee, invited friends over, brought in a DJ, opened up the studio to shop, and called it DAF Cafe.

We really didn't know exactly what it would become. We just wanted to create a space for people to come hang out.

The response was better than we could have expected.

People stayed, talked, shopped, drank coffee, met new people, and asked when we were doing it again. Even people who couldn't make it started reaching out asking about the next one.

So we're doing it again.

This time, we're trading the morning coffee for an evening glass of natural wine.

The next DAF Cafe will bring together The Lone Daffodil, vino, music, clothes, friends, and community, along with a cause we're really excited to support.

After spending a week in one of the biggest cities in the world, it feels fitting to come home and make our own little corner of Tampa Bay feel a little smaller.

Because whether we're in Tampa or New York, that's what we want The Lone Daffodil to keep becoming.

Good clothes. Good people. A reason to get together.

More on the next DAF Cafe next week.

See you soon.