Peter Do’s spring show took place at Paris’s Musée Guimet, home to one of the largest collections of Asian art outside Asia. While it jibed with the designer’s Vietnamese roots, it was a choice not short of ambition. Seats sneaked around century-old statues and intricately carved portals; on each chair, press notes were paired with a text (A poem? An essay?) written by Korean-American author Mary H.K. Choi, along with a Bangkok guide featuring the favorite spots of designer Philip Huang, who had assisted Do in researching ancestral indigo dyeing techniques in Northern Thailand. Guest were gifted a bottle of ‘000,’ a custom scent created for the occasion. It was quite the production. A live performance capped off the show, continuing well after it had ended.
The dyes, made from leaves, tree bark, and earth, and activated by fire, water, and air—as Do explained backstage—produced irregular ombré patterns on gauzy fabrics, from which the designer crafted a few standout pieces, including a men’s bomber and two women’s slender coats, for the show’s finale. Bookended by these artisanal looks and the opening designs, which played on Do’s repertoire of fluid deconstruction, the collection struggled for a cohesive rhythm. Shredded denim and sweats alternated with sporty black satin puffers layered over tailored suits from a new line called 168; long men’s shirts, made from poplin or cotton with a crumpled-paper texture, were worn askew across the torso, while a Vietnamese-style lithe tunic in dark green chiffon with abstract prints (one of the collection’s uncomplicated, finest pieces) was layered over matching slender trousers.
Do tried to pull out all the stops to make his Paris outing worthy of all the effort (and investment) he had clearly put into it. However, while Paris offers global visibility to press and buyers, it’s far from an easy platform for a young brand to navigate, despite its apparently welcoming and generous reputation.
