Peter Do :: Refining Simplicity and Elegance
When Phoebe Philo announced she’s leaving Celine, it caused an uproar in the fashion industry. The chain-washed and strong contemporary feminine style she established immediately had no successors, which caused the public to cherish the beauty of Old Celine, and Phoebe Philo’s work in the past.
Recently, the LVMH Design Award announced the final eight finalists. Among them, the only designer Peter Do who showed up in the back is particularly eye-catching because his resume contains a piece of past work experience at Celine, which made him popular after the list was announced, as “the new rising star”.
It wasn’t hard to notice Old Celine’s iconic chain washing aesthetics in Peter Do’s designs. The details and tailoring of the clothing incorporate deconstruction elements and experimental spirit. If you still hoving over the simplicity of Phoebe Philo’s aesthetics, before she officially returns, maybe Peter Do can become your resolution.
Peter Do, who currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, was born in Vietnam and moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia with his family when he was 14 years old. In high school, he decided to develop fashion design. After completing his associate degree at FIT in New York in 2014, he won the LVMH graduation design award in one fell swoop (the only design student with no advanced education among the three award-winning designers), in addition to a generous bonus, which also allowed him to join Celine after graduation and work under Phoebe Philo.
Peter Do worked at Celine for two years after graduation, and he said: "But it feels like we have been there for ten years. We work very seriously." Peter once described his work at Celine in an interview with Magazine Heroine, "Basically, all of our clothing is done directly on the human body. We put various ideas on it and take some photos to let her understand what we want to express through clothing."
"Design from the human body" is probably the most important lesson Peter Do learned from Celine.
This kind of design method emphasizes the functionality of clothing, abandons useless decorations, and enables the wearer to truly live in the clothing. "It’s just a basic concept, when you wear the clothes, either you feel comfortable or not." And that’s how Peter Do understands how to make womenswear.
"I sometimes feel that no one cares about making clothes nowadays, they only care about how to make best-sellers."
It is a rare opportunity to be able to work at Celine after graduation, especially under Phoebe Philo. However, Peter still found the problems of many large companies, especially in terms of creative freedom, and began to think about creating his Brand, "I want to get control of my work, and working in a fashion house will have a lot of restrictions. I have never been able to clearly express what I want to say."
The Peter Do Team
To take control of his creativity, Peter decided to quit his job and moved back to New York to work under designer Derek Lam, where he learned about the commercial aspects of the industry. In the early stage of starting his own business, Peter focused on Derek Lam's work on weekdays. During lunch breaks, he would help to find fabric suppliers or sample production for his brand. Until everything is ready to go, Do and his companions quitted their job and fully dedicated themselves to Peter Do.
For their very first collection, the overall inspiration was taken from the legendary photographer Irving Penn's photographic work "Small Trade" in 1950 and Tokyo street style. During the first quarter, sales reached USD 500,000, which is quite impressive. Ever since Peter Do had officially entered the game with full-power mode on. The brand had entered Net-A-Porter, Dover Street Market, Bergdorf Goodman, and other leading select shops and online retail stores, with their forever-sold-out womenswear.
From SS 2019, we can see that Peter Do used a large amount of half-transparent and seemingly PVC material in his collection. Do mention the fabric is called ‘Spacer’, which is an innovative fabric jointly developed by him and a German factory.
The appearance is like synthetic rubber. It was originally used for military clothing or heat insulation materials. To make this material skin-friendly and applicable for production, the entire development team made many adjustments, which later became an iconic fabric for Peter Do.
"We also tried using yarn in different ways to make more types of clothing,"
Do continued, "Just like we initially tried to knit with it, but it did work in the end. We even increased the extensibility later, combine it with Lycra fiber, which can be easily perpetuated."
Functionality and wearability are the two main focuses at Peter Do, which can be seen from the design of a single product. Whether it is a shirt or a skirt, "pockets" can be seen everywhere, with delicate pleats and asymmetrical proportions. The exquisite design aesthetics not only inherits from Celine and Derek Lam but also comes from Do’s early collection of Helmut Lang and Martin Margiela's photos on Tumblr.
With custom tailoring as their core design, people often associate him with Philo’s design in Celine and describe his design as minimalist. But Peter Do disagreed. He said, “I don’t like it. The reason for this word is that it has nothing to do with the way we design our collections today.”
"Women who like Peter Do don’t need to be very fashionable, but they will understand the importance of quality and craftsmanship. No matter how crazy my obsession with design is, the tailoring of my clothing must be well-fitted, and there must be someone who can wear it and fell in love for it.” -Peter Do
Photo Credit : Peter Do, i-D
