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Peter Som
PETER SOM,
a graduate of Connecticut College with degrees in art and art history,
first became obsessed with fashion in the fifth grade while paging
through copies of his older sister’s fashion magazines. Mr Som was
likewise blessed with parents who were both architects, and who
instilled in him the ideal of purity of form, function and composition
that have become the hallmarks of his design æsthetic. (Today,
he designs clothes for real women with that same spirit. Clothes
that are effortless, clean, and come from a foundation of simple
luxury.) He later went on to graduate from the Parsons School of
Design, after which, he honed his skills in the design rooms of
some of America’s most revered designers—Bill Blass, Michael Kors
and Calvin Klein. His work has also been featured in such prestigious
publications as WWD, Vogue, Elle, Mirabella,
Glamour and Mademoiselle, as well as CNN Style
with Elsa Klensch, HBO’s Sex
and the City, MTV and E!.
The theme for his fall 2004 show was ‘Great Beauties
Gone Mad’, an idea that he got from watching the Joseph Mankiewicz
directed-Gore Vidal penned screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams’
classic play, Suddenly, Last Summer, starring Elizabeth Taylor,
Katherine Hepburn, Mercedes McCambridge and Montgomery Clift. Set
in New Orleans in 1937, the story centres around a rich widow, Mrs
Venable (Ms Hepburn), who plans to fund a hospital building for
a state asylum, if Dr Cukrowicz (Mr Clift) will perform a lobotomy
on her niece Catherine (Ms Taylor). Mrs Venable is distraught over
the death of her son, Sebastian, the previous summer in Europe under
mysterious circumstances. Sebastian and his mother used to travel
abroad together every summer, except the previous summer, when he
took his cousin Catherine instead. We all know what eventually happened
but one thing can be said, the lead female characters managed, in
the middle of their individual dementia, to look well-groomed, if
not slightly off-centre, throughout the entire drama as it enfolds.
His designs here follow the same artfully deconstructed
but romantically luxe æsthetic; and for the most part, he
succeeded rather well. I was not in love with his use of furs in
this collection. I thought that some of the pieces were the very
antithesis of his stated design belief, ergo going against what
he stands for on the design front. But I like the colour palette
he used (apple green, wedgewood blue, shades of plum, lilac, chocolate
and champagne, heather grey), the fab fabrics (Donegal tweed, printed
mousseline, panne velvet, nubby lurex-shot tweeds, beaded tulle
and silk charmeuse) and the lean silhouette that anchored the collection.
For day, the standout pieces include his Newport
tweed short sleeve skirt suit paired with a lilac chunky cashmere
cardigan, a beautifully-cut grey Donegal tweed pantsuit paired with
a lilac cashmere cardigan and topped off with a natural mink stole,
and his apple green Donegal tweed beale skirt. For evening, he was
better able to harness his theme to his æsthetic, resulting
in some very lovely pieces, indeed. Best of here has to include
his heather grey cashmere sweater (paired with an iridescent taffeta
evening skirt), a nude duchesse satin cocktail dress, his black
charmeuse camisole/black chiffon sequinned skirt set, his organza
blue-leaf print lightweight gown and his delicate pink chiffon sequinned
gown.
CONTINUED
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 His
designs here follow the same artfully deconstructed but romantically
luxe æsthetic; and for the most part, he succeeded
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