Double play: Designer Peter Som scores twice in one Fashion Week

Backstage after the Bill Blass show, amidst racing models and jostling TV crews, Peter Som greets a swarm of fashion dignitaries rushing to congratulate him. Barneys New York fashion director Julie Gilhart, Elle's Nina Garcia, Mary Alice Stephenson of Harper's Bazaar all line up to hug the visibly relieved designer.

Not many 37-year-olds have the chance to present even one collection at New York's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. In the space of four days, Som has shown two: His signature line and, easily the week's most buzzed about splash, his debut effort at Bill Blass.

Five days earlier, behind clear glass double-doors on the fifth floor of a drab building on West 39th Street, the mood in Som's showroom is anything but panicked. With the help of two assistants, the designer is quietly pinning, hemming and accessorizing looks for the fall collection that will hit the runway in 48 hours.

Model Sheila Marquez walks the length of the spare showroom, past racks safeguarding broadtail car coats, feather-adorned skirts, humble-looking cashmere sweatshirts and a table packed with high-gloss patent booties courtesy of Christian Louboutin. No chaos, no cigarettes, no screaming indie rock. Only the sugary beats of Ace of Base accompany the clicks of Marquez's heels, her gait confined in a snug, mid-calf satin swag skirt.

"The Peter Som woman is more of a romantic. She's a little more quirky, loopy, a little more of a dreamer," says Som, taking a break between fittings. "Whereas the Blass woman is definitely much more of a pragmatist. She likes her clothes crisp, clean and luxurious."

Som, the son of architects, grew up in northern California's Marin County. After earning a B.A. in art history from Connecticut College, he headed to New York and Parsons School of Design. "I grew up in a very visual world," says Som. "I've always loved fashion and knew Parsons was in my future."

Bill Blass was, too. Som's first job post-Parsons was as a design assistant to the iconic American designer and New York social fixture. He worked with Blass for 18 months but still has questions for his late mentor. "How did he make it look so easy?" is one.

"The way he led his life, his friends, his love of beautiful things, furniture, art – I think that's what was great about him," says Som. "There was an effortlessness to how he designed and how he lived. It would be great to know his secret."

Stints at two other quintessentially American labels, Calvin Klein and Michael Kors, followed before Som struck out on his own in 2001, quickly earning accolades as part of a new generation of New York designers embracing classic American sportswear.

In 2007, two things catapulted Som to the majors: Lord and Taylor's parent company acquired a majority stake in his signature label, which will enable expansion into the lucrative accessories market. And he was named creative director of Blass, overseeing not only the luxury ready-to-wear line, which sells at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, but accessories and lower-priced licensees, as well.

Som is the fourth designer to helm the label since Blass' retirement in 1999. (He died in 2002 at age 79.) Following the critically and commercially disappointing efforts of his predecessors (Steven Slowik, Lars Nilsson and Michael Volbracht), Som wanted to be true to the label's founder.

"It was about going back to the archives that date back all through Mr. Blass' life. I started with look books from 1969, 1970, which was really the first year of the house of Bill Blass. For me, it was really about going back to the roots of what he was all about: optimistic, clean, beautiful clothes."

"Personally, I think Bill Blass would have liked that show," says Forty Five Ten co-owner Brian Bolke, who will host Som with a trunk show of his signature collection at the end of the month.

"I think he hit it out of the park. The fact is, Peter was around Blass and saw how he worked. He knows what Bill Blass was about."

With Blass as a counterpoint, Som took his own collection in a more personal direction. "He really let go," says Bolke. "Looking at the collection in the showroom, you could find a woman of any age wearing it. Every piece really stood on its own."

"The furs were amazing. The wide-leg pants looked right. The knits, the casual looks, the dresses were all great. He really got the quirky elegance of the season, a very planned randomness."

With two takes on American style – one idiosyncratic, one pragmatic – behind him, Som is already thinking about what's next.

"As a creative person, I'm never quite satisfied," he says. "I think that's why I have to be a fashion designer. Every six months, or at this point, every three months, I have a chance to improve on what I've done before."

But not right away. "I think I'll watch a video of the show and then swan dive into my bed for a little nap."

Source: dallasnews.com