After staging his second outing for Helmut Lang on the New York Fashion Week stage earlier this month, Peter Do has touched down in Paris, where he’s pulled back the curtain on his namesake brand’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection, titled “Áo Dài.” Named after Vietnam’s national dress (a silk tunic with pants for both men and women), the line, shown in a French gallery, reformulated tailoring standards to further cement the Do wardrobe — one that references his home country’s traditional attire in pursuit of sheer artistry.
“Right now I’m not trying to make PD the next billion-dollar brand,” the designer told Vogue Runway. “Because of my new challenge at Helmut, I want to protect this. I want it to feel even more personal and special to me, where I feel maybe not financially, but creatively free.”
That sense of sartorial freedom permeates this lineup, where flowing textiles drape across the human form with grace and formalwear makes a bid for softness, lauding áo dài. Conceptual, black-and-white paint strokes candidly glide all over turtleneck sweaters, fitted blazers, layered skirts, dress trousers and button-up shirts with extra-long sleeves, standing as the collection’s lone print. Elsewhere, the color palette — black, white, grey and brown — is calming to consume.
Do challenges proper design codes, turning lapels inward on woolen overcoats to conceal their underlayers and tying knee-length shirts at the waist to flatter the body. Much like those backless suits that captivated the Internet in Do’s Spring 2023 collection, this line includes slimming long-sleeves with identical rear exposés. Sharp-shouldered formals live in contrast to liberated gowns, as the designer continues his boundary-less explorations of masculine and feminine dress. Here, Do’s technical prowess is not boastful; rather, he shifts fashion’s tides with a quiet power.