Peter Dundas tapped consummate London girl Poppy Delevingne as his muse for resort 2024.
“I made her wedding dress eight years ago, and now it’s in the Norwegian national museum,” he said. “We’ve been really close friends ever since. She has that 1970s vibe that I love so much and a bit of a boho chic as well. And she loves to look sexy, but I don’t think she ever looks vulgar, which is key in what I do.”
He zeroed in on a full day-to-night, city-to-holiday wardrobe, from a super-sharp and sexy white wool gabardine tailored maxi coat and slit skirt paired with barely there bra belt, through to beach-ready crochet pieces, semi-sheer jersey cover-ups and print tunics.
“I always start each collection with a jacket, which nobody believes, but that’s how I was trained and I think it sets the tone for everything. So many women come to me for evening dresses but I find if I can figure out the jacket silhouette, everything else fits into place,” said Dundas, who highlighted the pagoda shoulder in long and lean, and short and fitted jacket silhouettes as part of his burgeoning tailoring category.
He worked in a soft palette of dusty rose, butter yellow and mocha brown, but unleashed plenty of his signature animal prints, of course. A chocolate brown minidress with crocodile scale mirror embroidery had glamorous chops, as did a sheer tulle minidress with silver crystal bugle beads on negative space “almost like an animal fishnet,” he said.
Body-hugging bias-cut dresses with plunging backs, cowl necks or floss-thin straps furthered the season’s 1930s-meets-1970s tone, while leather short-shorts, sheer bodysuits and silky lingerie underpinnings kept the collection feeling contemporary.
Delevingne looked great, shot on the street in London with her blonde hair flying wild. “There is that rock ‘n’ roll element to her as well that I love. During the shoot, she’s like, ‘Oh, can I take this to Glastonbury?'” Dundas laughed. Not just yet, he said. “I need those samples — without mud.”
