Paige DeSorbo’s new Daphne drop brings boat-ready summer style to New York

Paige DeSorbo has turned Daphne’s latest drop into a pitch for boat-day luxury with city polish, and the formula is sharp enough to notice. The 26-piece summer 2026 collection landed on May 12 with DeSorbo modeled around Manhattan, shot by Chris White, and styled in scenes that made the point fast: a double-decker bus, a styrofoam Statue of Liberty crown, and enough downtown irreverence to keep the Hamptons references from feeling too precious.

This is not the original sleepy-lounge Daphne. The brand launched in June 2025 as a direct-to-consumer sleepwear and loungewear line, and its first collections were small enough to feel almost niche, with a debut of 12 pieces and a fall 2025 follow-up that expanded to 16. Now DeSorbo is clearly pushing the label outside the bedroom. In January, she said, “For 2026, summer will be geared toward sets you can wear outside.” That is the strategy in plain English: sell ease, but make it public.

The clothes back up that pivot better than a lot of celebrity labels do. Daphne’s site calls the line “ready-to-lounge,” but the standout fabrics and shapes are aimed at actual warm-weather dressing, not just couch duty. The Eyelet Lobby Shirt comes in at $95, the Excursion Short at $78, and the Shut Eye Pant at $120. The brand also lists the Heatwave Bralette, Cabana Pant, Sunkissed Skort and Hannah-branded basics, which gives the line more range than a single pajama set pretending to be daywear.

What makes the collection land in Coastal Grandmother territory is the fabric story. DeSorbo said the line is built around light, breathable cotton poplin, and she gave the Shut Eye Pant a 30-inch inseam because she is tired of pants that land awkwardly short. That detail matters. A longer inseam, a relaxed fit and the ability to buy from small to large depending on the day all point toward clothes that skim rather than squeeze. The navy-and-white and yellow-and-white stripes push the mood even further into “you, on a boat” territory, which is exactly the kind of shorthand that sells summer fantasy to women who want polish without stiffness.

The question is whether Daphne is truly delivering relaxed refinement or mostly dressing up loungewear with coastal imagery. The answer, at least in this drop, is somewhere in the middle. The cotton poplin, eyelet and longer pant shape give the collection more credibility than a standard influencer cash-in, but the Manhattan campaign and Hamptons-adjacent styling are doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Still, in a market crowded with overpriced sets that never leave the house, Daphne at least understands the assignment: make summer clothes that look good at the dock, on the sidewalk and in a Montauk brunch line.