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Lucire fall-winter 2004

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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.

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His designs here follow the same artfully deconstructed but romantically luxe æsthetic; and for the most part, he succeeded

 

Media partner: San Francisco Fashion Week
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