Peter Do is now at the helm at Helmut Lang, the house announced on May 10.
“No one embodied radical thinking more definitely than Helmut Lang,” Peter Do said in a statement. “It is my deep honor to be entrusted with ushering in the next chapter of Helmut Lang’s legacy. I am excited to learn from the foundations this house stands on and to continue creating new, energetic clothes that inspire people to challenge their understanding of what is possible when it comes to expressing their individuality,” he added.
Do’s first day is this coming Monday, May 15, and he will oversee both men’s and women’s collections, and will report directly to Helmut Lang CEO Dinesh Tandon. “We are thrilled to have Peter Do join Helmut Lang as Creative Director,” Tandon shared. “His clear and innovative approach to design very much aligns with the brand’s ethos and heritage.” The Peter Do brand is not going anywhere, though, he will remain at its helm.
Photo: Al Zeta
The Helmut Lang brand was founded in 1986 by the self-taught Austrian designer, and has passed through multiple hands since Lang himself left in 2005 to work as an artist. It was first revived in 2007 when it was acquired by Link Theory Holdings, now a subsidiary of Fast Retailing, from the Prada Group, who hired Michael and Nicole Colovos to lead the creative overhaul. After the duo left the label in 2014, the brand was managed by an anonymous in-house design team until Isabella Burley, the then editor-in-chief of Dazed, was hired as an “editor-in-residence.” She asked Shayne Oliver in 2017 to design its spring 2018 collection. After the one-season experiment, Mark Thomas and Thomas Cawson briefly took over in 2019, departing after the spring 2020 season. Since then, the house has been led by an in-house team. Do’s hiring mark’s Helmut Lang’s most high profile appointment since Oliver’s term.
Do grew up in Biên Hòa, Vietnam and went on to study fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and received the inaugural 2014 LVMH Graduate Prize. He worked in the ready-to-wear atelier of Phoebe Phil’s Céline and then at Derek Lam. He launched his own label in New York in 2018, and soon earned an insider following for his sharp tailoring skills and downtown-cool appeal. Do has been nominated for three CFDA Awards and was a finalist of the 2020 LVMH Prize. He staged his first runway in New York for the spring 2022 season, following up with two successively larger shows, but sat out the fall 2023 season. Finally, last month, he presented a lookbook of core pieces which he described as a “good reset.”
Photo: WWD
Though he has the education in fashion that Lang never got, what he does share with Lang is an air of mystique, a quick rise to acclaim, and an appreciation for uncomplicated beauty expressed through tailoring and sharp silhouettes. The two designers both reject the way the fashion industry is centered on the designer as a celebrity. Do is known for disguising his face in photos, and Lang famously broke away from the runway scene in the ’90s to prioritize more intimate presentations prior to retiring from fashion completely.
Do’s debut collection for Helmut Lang, Spring/Summer 2024, will be presented during New York Fashion Week in September.
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