When Peter Do first made his New York Fashion Week debut two years ago, his structured approach to minimal downtown dressing was lauded as a much-needed boost to the New York fashion scene. Now, as Do ushered in another debut at Helmut Lang opening NYFW this season, he was tasked with injecting some of that invigorating mood into the legacy brand known for its minimalist, deconstructive aesthetic and, which historically led the way to New York being the first fashion week of the season. As heritage goes, those are big shoes to fill; yet for Helmut Lang, which has been led by editors-in-residence, celebrities, and a handful of designers, the nod to the brand’s history of putting advertisements on the top of yellow taxi cabs was an engagingly viral, first step. Flash forward to Friday’s show that was smacked in between a torrid heatwave and torrential rain after, Do’s creative direction for S/S 24 had glimpses of acknowledging that subversive history again with tanks emblazoned with words from author Ocean Vuong (a nod to Helmut’s historic Jenny Holzer connection), spliced-in seat belt bondage onto suiting, distorted taxi print in silk organza, and magenta hues referencing referencing Fall 1994. As a first attempt, Do still needs to unleash more of his original design principles to create something new and unseen. Yet, as someone who came from the school of Phoebe (another who will make a return debut this season of her first eponymous line), it’s important to give people time to build lest we fall into pre-pandemic practices of regurgitating more talent out than we can support. The cast, led by Anita Bitton, told more of a story of the muses who have been in his universe, including The Idol actor, singer, and Do supporter Moses Sumney, constant muse Maggie Maurer, opener Vaiora Stroganoff, closer and icon Sasha Pivovarova, with Barbara Valente, Mathieu Simoneau, Dahan , Sang Woo Kim, Xu Meen, Lineisy Montero, Alex Consani, Pierce Abernathy, Jeffrey Wahlberg, and more.
