Peter Do Fall 2023 Ready-to-Wear Collection

A new Peter Do look for every day of the year. That was the designer’s concept for these photos. There are 351 of them, so he’s only 15 days short. The remarkable thing is, all 351 outfits were put together with just 20-or-so different pieces. “We took two days with the team to just play, and tried them on in endless possibilities,” Do said at his Sunset Park studio. “This is something that’s going to be permanently offered every season, and a lot of these things are items that we’ve sold since day one.”

Despite three successively bigger runway shows, and industry buy-in that found him shortlisted for both the Woolmark Prize and the CFDA Designer of the Year award in 2022, Do sat out New York Fashion Week in February. He declined to speak publicly about his absence at the time, and even now he doesn’t care to go into details, but he is calling this collection a “good reset.”

It could’ve been a case of too much, too soon. The pressure of the runway can sometimes lead an emerging designer away from their founding principles, to say nothing of draining resources, both financial and energetic. “This is one of my favorite collections,” Do said. “I had time to edit down what I want to say. It feels like I found my voice, in a way. It feels like me.”

The pieces he created for the Woolmark competition form the foundation of the lineup. It’s a tight group of essentials, many featuring the single contrast stripe on the left arm that counts as the Peter Do logo. Very mix-and-matchable are two Loro Piana wool blazers, one oversize, the other giant; an array of chunky ribbed knits made using Zegna Baruffa yarns, including the dickey-bib that turns crewnecks into turtlenecks; the belted waistband trouser and pleated asymmetrical skirt from season one; and a leather coat with the boss versatility he’s built into the brand from the start—its zip-off hem converts into a wrap skirt. He also designed a selection of easy-wearing separates in wrinkle-free Japanese viscose with price points lower than the rest of the collection.

What you don’t see: superfluous embellishment, print, or anything in the way of color. The black and white palette and emphasis on tailoring will play into the internet’s current preoccupation with quiet luxury, but Do rejects the label. “Now that we have this foundation set, I’m excited to go back to creating newness.”

Come September he says he’s likely to be back on the schedule, though New York or Paris is still tbd. Evidence of that in-process collection was pinned to boards in his office. The other signature he’ll be sticking with: genderless design. He’s fitting every look on both men and women.