It’s hard to consider that it’s taken this long for a K-Pop star to make a correct Recent York Fashion Week cameo. Though members of BLACKPINK and BTS have lined the front rows of major maisons for the past couple of seasons, it was Peter Do who first put an Icon to work – casting NCT member JENO in because the protagonist of his recent menswear imprint. “It was a natural selection to have JENO open the show. JENO embodies the Peter Do man – multifaceted, confident, and a trailblazer,” Do explained in a press release. “I actually have a lot respect for these artists because there’s a lot time put into their craft that individuals simply don’t see. Few realise the intensity of what is going on behind the scenes to realize the top product; it’s very much like fashion so I discover with that process very much.”

A collaboration with SM Entertainment, Red Velvet’s Seulgi and SMROOKIES’ Shohei and Eunseok also emerged on the runway. While these appearances appear to contradict Do’s relationship with celebrity  – he’s obscured his face with black masks since long before the pandemic – the designer’s decision to link up with the behemoth pop label holds personal resonance. Alongside a hand-written note, traditional biscuits from the primary ever Vietnamese bakery in Recent York, a needle, thread, measuring tape, and a recipe from his late father, a tin box invitation included a CD mix tape with a QR code linking to a K-Pop Spotify playlist. “There’s the nostalgia of listening to Girls’ Generation songs on the bus on my approach to school. And after we began the brand, we were listening to Red Velvet on repeat while constructing studio furniture,” he noted.

Do’s come a great distance since then and today’s menswear offering further widened his horizons – even despite customers of all genders already buying into his sharp, languid fashions. Schooled under Phoebe Philo, there was something that felt particularly edifying concerning the designer’s tackle mens clothing; it wasn’t a “younger brother” to the Peter Do woman, but an equal. A broadened shoulder here, a tapered waist there, masc-presenting models wore studded platform boots, pleated skirts, overblown blazers, and leather slacks that pooled on the ankle. In a tribute uploaded to Instagram before the show, Do reflected on the timewarp he experienced after his father’s passing – “Dad’s tend of doing that don’t they?“ – which gave recent intending to his signature too-big tailoring, creating the impression of youngsters trundling out of their parents’ work suits.

Backless and cinched with a trailing belt, those jackets gave approach to lustrous side-slit trousers, assymetric  knife pleat skirts, floor-skimming trench coats, starchy shirt-dresses, and enormous messenger bags that checked out home on all of the models storming through the 59th floor of a Recent York high rise. However the Peter Do look is tomboyish by nature and these pieces are clearly designed to be shared, so perhaps that is less about approaching menswear as a definite category and more about welcoming people of all sizes and shapes into clothes – not unlike Miuccia Prada’s AW22 collection at Miu Miu, which made men’s and girls’s styles ambiguous. At a degree when gendered clothing is starting to feel drained, Do’s debut sets a precedent for a future default.