In Search of Softness

WORDS BY JOSHUA GLASS PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARTWORK BY PETER DO

New guard fashion designer Peter Do exclusively documents the creation of his longawaited menswear debut.

attending New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology.

In 2014, the fashion designer won the inaugural 2014 LVMH Graduate Prize only to be headhunted by Phoebe Philo to join her (and Daniel Lee, later of Bottega fame) in Paris for a very different era of Céline. In 2018, he established his eponymous label back in New York not as a one-man show as per the norm, but rather, a collective. In the few years since, the brand has gained a cult-like following, in part for its sophisticated sculpture and subversive expression of fashion but also its intellectual and cultural proximity.

tions, employing sharp construction, rich fabrics, and functional design typically native to Savile Row. “Traditionally, men shop less than women, so their clothes are made to last longer. I wanted to make women’s clothing the way people have made men’s forever. I wanted my women to be strong and tough and empowered.”

But not only did it work—it also garnered a dedicated fanbase of men, too. “Ever since that first collection we’ve had a huge male following,” Do explains, himself and staff included. “They have just been buying the pieces that fit them. Men’s stores too, ing for women to then ‘women’s’ clothing for men.”

Chronicled exclusively in this portfolio—from inception and development in Europe to its debut in New York this September—the line is a fluid extension of the designer’s reckoning of gender with many motifs familiar to the Peter Do brand, from slinky tanks and asymmetrical pieces meant for layering to its signature statement boots. While categorically these new garments are “for men,” many in fact, are meant to be “shareable,” with adjustments in fit and preference added and detachments easily made. It’s a visual exercise not dissimilar to a phrase or too feminine, and introducing a line for men specifically allowed me to think freer than I ever thought I could.”