In November 2024, Tanya Taylor — the founder of her 13-year-old namesake fashion brand — realized a dream she’d had since she was a student at Parsons. Inspired by the alter ego she created as a fashion design student, she launched Delphine, a spinoff brand focused on evening wear.
Delphine has proven to be a successful experiment. According to Taylor, it surpassed her initial sales goal for the first year by over 15%. The brand’s focus on playful evening wear filled a white space that Taylor identified between ultra-luxury looks from brands like Prada and Chanel and cheap fast-fashion outfits bought for one-and-done events. Average Delphine looks retail for $900-$1200.
The Tanya Taylor brand is also successful and profitable, seeing 40% sales growth over the last two years and hitting $25 million in annual revenue.
“So far, our favorite [styles] have also been the customer’s favorites, which is a good sign as a designer,” Taylor said. “We have sold out of our Charlotte dress every season. It has helped motivate us to see the performance being so strong.”
Taylor said Delphine has a healthy wholesale presence, especially at online retailers like Moda Operandi. Taylor estimates that she and her team currently split their time 80-20 between Tanya Taylor and Delphine.
One of the surprising takeaways from the brand’s first year is the number of new customers it has brought in, Taylor said.
“I thought there’d be more crossover, more Tanya Taylor customers buying Delphine for events,” she said. “But it’s really a new customer. And we have people coming in [to Tanya Taylor stores] specifically to buy Delphine.”
Delphine is sold in Tanya Taylor stores in addition to its wholesale partners. Key to Delphine’s success has been its playful marketing. Taylor said the team uses the fictional persona of Delphine as a guide for the brand’s marketing, including sharing monthly first-person diary entries written from Delphine’s perspective. Delphine is marketed across social channels and has targeted existing Tanya Taylor customers.
Other examples include events, such as a Delphine poker party hosted at Taylor’s home in Manhattan. It welcomed guests including Chelsea Clinton, Willa Fitzgerald, Laura Whitmore, Anna Van Patten and Sofia Hublitz — plus Ray Ray, a poodle influencer, referencing the fictional Delphine’s love of poodles. Other events have included a two-day bingo tournament hosted at Brooklyn’s Royal Palms bar.
“The more we add quirks, like she loves poodles or she always wears polka dots, the better people respond to her,” Taylor said. “If we did a pop-up of only Delphine, I could build out her whole living room. People would be interested in the clothes, but also the sofas, the coupes. The more we can articulate that vibe, the more people understand it.”
A permanent Delphine store isn’t yet in the cards; wholesale through luxury boutiques is the main focus. The Kirna Zabête boutique in Palm Beach is Delphine’s best-selling store, while Moda Operandi is its fastest-growing retail partner. But pop-ups dedicated to Delphine, bigger marketing campaigns and more events are all planned for the next year.
“We’re going to Buenos Aires soon to shoot our first international campaign for Delphine,” Taylor said. “It’s her first time traveling. I’m curious about what a Delphine pop-up would look like. Right now, it’s wholesale, and it’s sprinkled into our [Tanya Taylor] stores. But it’s cool to see the whole brand all together, and you can’t do that in wholesale. I’d love to do a hotel pop-up and have it look like Delphine’s hotel room.”
