Profile of Fashion Designer

Peter Som

At 31, New-York based designer Peter Som has become known as a designer to watch. Part of the wave of new American Sportswear, his clean and streamlined sportswear pieces strike the right balance between sleek modern style and feminine luxury. A native of San Francisco, and the son of two architects, Som first realized he wanted to be a designer in grade five, when he would leaf through women’s magazines and sketch his own designs.  Read the special interview with Peter Som  View Peter Som's photos from the show To pursuit his dream he attended Connecticut College to study art and art history, then went on to the Parsons School of Design in New York to hone his design skills. There he interned at Calvin Klein and Michael Kors and received the school’s Gold Thimble award for his work. In 1997 he was recognized by the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s (CFDA) scholarship program as a rising young talent. Som’s first job out of school was as a design assistant at Bill Blass, where he spent a year and a half; he later worked briefly on the bridge line at Emanuel Ungaro. In 1999 Som had the opportunity to realize his dream of launching his own collection – an immediate success with press and buyers. To date, Som’s designs have been shown on the pages of magazines such as Elle, Glamour and WWD and Vogue, where he was included in the esteemed “Index”. His clothes have been featured on the shows Sex And The City and CNN Style with Elsa Klensch. This year the Council of Fashion Designers of America nominated Som for the Perry Ellis award for emerging talent. Som believes that fashion should be fun, and enjoys the challenge of creating modern clothes that retain an edge of femininity and sexiness, yet still allow women to be taken seriously. In each of his collections he pays tribute to his Chinese heritage with a touch of red, which in China symbolizes fortune and good luck. Sometimes there are just subtle hints of the colour in the fabrics he uses but Som often ends his shows with a red dress – red being the traditional colour in China for brides. Peter Som’s designs are available in the U.S. at Henri Bendel and specialty boutiques as well as in Hong Kong.