“Six months ago, when we were midway through the pandemic, connection was the word most often on my mind,” reflected Peter Dundas while Zooming from his studio in London. “Now it’s different. What I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is utility, survival, bravery. Vulnerability and protection. Freedom and nature.”
Connecting with nature had a particular resonance for him during the various quarantines; Dundas was born in a small village in Norway “literally in the forest—I was a committed Boy Scout!” he said. “There’s nothing easier for me than appreciating the freedom which comes from living outdoors.” But as Norwegian woods weren’t a viable destination under the circumstances, he had to make do with lots of promenades in London’s parks.
Social interaction has obviously changed dramatically, and Dundas, who dresses jetsetters and celebrities with busy social calendars, had to adapt to a swim-or-sink situation. Daywear having taken pride of place in women’s wardrobes, he gave his own glamorous interpretation to the concept of protection, which seems to be of universal concern among designers. But he can go only so far: The most efficiently protective outfits he offered in his Dundas15 collection were actually übersexy military-inspired safari suits.
A khaki cape-jacket had seductive leopard-print lacing running along the sleeves and was worn with a sensual, slightly see-through blouse in printed chiffon. In another alluring iteration of the theme, a cotton-canvas strong-shoulder, sharp-tailored, cinched-waist safari jacket was paired with a skintight pencil skirt with revealing lacing openings along the sides; to amp up its sexy wattage, it was worn over a flimsy animalier-print pussy-bow blouse. Dundas cannot resist a nod to the feral sensuousness of jungle wildcats.
The collection moved on familiar territory in its offer of the designer’s best-of dresses—draped, short, and formfitting in provocative black leather and Lurex jacquard; long, flowy, and bohemian in wispy georgette printed with toile de Jouy motifs or in romantic broderie anglaise.
While refraining from the glitzy embroideries he usually lavishes over his hypershort party numbers (“In these circumstances, you have to be mindful, even if you want to keep the optimism”), Dundas indulged a more “demure version of embellishment,” as he put it. This consisted of a long T-shirt dress made of soft, curvaceous jersey that was daringly laced with thin metallic chains at the back, leaving not much to the imagination. He described it as being an example of “low-key glamour.”
For the first time, an edited menswear offer was proposed within the collection; a series of ’70s-flavored shirts, tunics, and short caftans in denim, leather, or animalier print was inspired by Dundas’s favorite rock stars—Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger, and the like. “If there’s something that can lift our spirits today, it’s certainly music,” he said. No arguing with that.
