From Palais de Tokyo to Banana Republic

Huge applause after a poetically tailored and very special morning show from Peter Do, with every fashion critic of note joining in the clapping inside the ​Palais de Tokyo.

Not a single weak look in this performance, whose leitmotif was the ability to gracefully harness rather than juxtapose highly different fabrics.
 
Like a series of black and white dresses and cocktails where the black calf skin borders, panels, loops and trim seemed almost organically blend into the ecru silk.

Do is also a great tailor, avant garde yet very wearable. Cutting micro spencers and mess jackets and then pairing them with flared pleated pants, brilliantly finished with satin waistlines.
 
Everything felt right from the opening, an ecru canvas redingote with black leather lapels and cuffs, worn over a great pair of leather pants, the pleats artfully placed at the hip.
 
Do completed the collection with his own ergonomic silver jewelry and metal spike heel slingbacks or retro-futurist boots. 
 
The co-ed collection included eight looks from a collab’ with Banana Republic, including a rather wonderful military shirt, split vertically into suede and leather; and a great desert-hued trench with detachable hood. Allowing international consumers to acquire elements from an admirable and directional runway show in Paris with little pain at the cash register. 
 
Two weeks ago, Vietnam-born and Philadelphia-raised Do suffered a cool response to his debut at Helmut Lang in New York, but this was a brilliant response to his naysayers.
 
Backed up by a great soundtrack by Wladimir Schall, beginning with the brass grandeur of the Menahan Street Band and ending with Isaac Hayes’ Help Me Love. While his casting – courtesy of Anita Bitton for Establishment New York – was excellent. Without spending much money, she summoned up an ideally cool tribe for Do’s fashion show. And the smeared orange makeup by Daniel Sallstrom for Shiseido added a dash of perversion, as the entire backstage seemed inspired by the assurance and elegance of this collection.
 
“This season, we want our work to speak for itself. Love, the Peter Do Team,” read the program notes of the designer, who took his bow with a black face mask. 
 
It certainly did.