spring's leading ladies 1. daryl k; A rebel yell has turned into a mature voice.

Byline: Lynn Yaeger

I've definitely softened up a bit," Daryl Kerrigan confesses, describing her breakthrough new spring line, a melange of gracefully draped jersey frocks, deconstructed shirtdresses, and slightly twisted wallpaper-print jackets that taken together evince a sort of Madame Gres-goes-to-CBGB sensibility. "I think I've grown up a bit, too."

Kerrigan, known more familiarly as Daryl K, enjoys a lofty reputation that rests on a strappy, lean, rock-chick silhouette, so it's more than a little eye-opening when she models her best-seller for spring 2005, a humongous jacket of overdyed jade-green (she says she can rarely find the exact color she wants off the bolt) sporting a huge, floppy square collar. It's even-made fleece, a fabric Kerrigan says offers "all the comfort, but then of course I tailor it."

Like the jade jacket, the rest of the new collection blends Kerri-gan's tough-girl trademarks with a bit of the avant-garde: Jersey pants sport a mini-sarong; boyish jackets have shirred-silk back panels. "I do love the feeling of a man's jacket," Kerrigan says. "It gives you a sense of power, like you get when you're wearing five-inch heels."

Showing off what she refers to as the collection's couture pieces-a small series of retooled African mud cloth-Kerrigan demonstrates how she pictures the clothes on the street: "You take this baby doll mud-cloth dress and put it over these little shorts-you know when you think a dress is just a little too short, so you put shorts underneath?-and you can reach in the pants pockets anytime! And then you maybe add an Australian cowboy hat." The whole effect suggests a post-punk version of Ava Gardner in Mogambo, fiercely feminine but also practical enough to ford a river.

Kerrigan's latest collection may have a spiritual kinship with Ann Demeulemeester, but aficionadas of her best-known contribution need not worry: Those low-slung, wildly coveted pants that made the designer famous remain in stock.

"I do get a lot of requests for them, always," Kerrigan says. When she's asked what their secret is-they look, after all, pretty much like any other trouser on the hanger-she shakes her streaky blonde head and says, "I can't tell you that! It's one particular trick! Factories are always doing it wrong. I'll try them on myself a million times to get it right." When pressed, she adds, "It's a lot about the crotch area." Those ...