11:11 AM PDT 4/25/2018
by
Ingrid Schmidt
Beyonce, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams were in the house last night to fete fashion designer Peter Dundas’ WeHo pop-up shop.
Fresh off her back-to-back Coachella weekend throwdowns, Beyonce turned up last night in an L.B.D. with fringed leather sleeves to celebrate the debut of fashion designer Peter Dundas’ traveling pop-up shop in West Hollywood. And it looks like the Destiny’s Child reunion isn’t over yet. By Bey’s side were former band mates Kelly Rowland, donning a sequined silver jumpsuit and white blazer, and Michelle Williams, who kept it low-key in an all-black ensemble with sparkly heels and walked behind Bey to avoid the spotlight during girls night out.
Heidi Klum, Alessandra Ambrosio and Charlotte McKinney were also in the crowd that sipped Casamigos cocktails as a DJ mixed the beats at the new Dundas pop-up shop, open through May 5 at 8382 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood before it moves to New York, Miami and beyond. The store is stocked with Dundas’ second collection that dropped in December (luxe boho dresses and caftans in tiered prints, billowy one-shoulder blouses, and sequined gowns and jumpsuits aplenty) along with new Dundas logo T-shirts ($210) and sweatshirts ($460) decorated with a black panther icon that the designer often uses to replicate a tattoo on his arm—notably also the symbol of black pride used by Beyonce in her Beychella wardrobe and concert merch.
“Every collection I do is inspired by glamour, by beauty and sensuality; there’s always a little touch of rock ’n’ roll to it as well,” says Dundas. “ I’ve been very, very lucky in my career to dress some of the most beautiful girls in the world. A lot of them live and work in L.A. so it was a natural place for me to have the first pop-up. It’s also been a place that my partner Evangelo [Bousis] and I love very much as well. We visit all the time. One day we might even end up living here. There’s a positivity to life and to enjoying living in L.A. that I think is vital in my aesthetic and my DNA. We love to have fun, we love to travel.”
It’s no secret that the Norwegian-born designer is a Hollywood favorite. Having served as creative director for a litany of luxury fashion brands (Emanuel Ungaro, Emilio Pucci and Roberto Cavalli after stints at Jean-Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix) Dundas famously debuted his namesake fashion line on none other than Beyonce, who wore two high-wattage custom gowns at the 2017 Grammy Awards last February before the line’s official launch at the Paris haute couture shows in July. Kim Kardashian West, Kate Hudson and Kendall Jenner are also fans of the brand, known for its ‘70s jet-set glam, that Dundas created and funds with Bousis.
“We’ve been in talks with a lot of people (there’s been so much interest so we’ve been very fortunate) but from my experience I know how important it is for us to find like-minded partners who share the vision and the growth cycles,” says Dundas, who shows at the Paris haute couture shows twice a year and also drops product in between at his new Milan showroom.
“We try not to have seasons, because the modern woman today travels everywhere, she’s not so dependent on seasons as she was before, so we call the collections by number,” says Dundas. “The first collection for me was really about establishing my codes and this one, D2, was an evolution that was very much about connecting with the dialogue of what my girls wanted and needed. One of the things was price. This collection is about one-fourth the price of the first collection and is much more affordable than what I’ve done before, which was an enjoyable journey for me. I went to India to work on the embroideries and I went to Como to work on the prints and I really got to know my work from a different angle. I’ll always do some special pieces, but I found there’s something to guilt-free clothes!”
A move into streetwear (the logo tees and hoodies introduced in January and sourced in Los Angeles ) is also new for the brand. “I started working on the tees and hoodies last August when we were here in L.A. for Burning Man—I took Peter for the first time and he was like a 12-year-old—and I went through at least ten samples before I found pieces that were perfectly soft, comfy and oversized,” says Bousis. “So many brands have hoodies and sweats that are uncomfortable and cost $2,000 and I don’t get that. They should be affordable and so comfortable that you want to wear them all the time.”
The Dundas collection is available at select retailers, including Moda Operandi online and Elyse Walker in Los Angeles. “We really wanted to keep the distribution small, because when you first start, you want to keep control of as much as you can to insure that you can deliver and keep everybody happy, so we’re trying to grow in a small manner,” says Dundas.
As for his top L.A. destinations, Dundas says: “Well. our hideaway is in Bel-Air but I prefer to keep my favorite places secret. I do love vintage shopping at What Comes Around Goes Around, Resurrection, Decades and the markets in Silver Lake. I still haven’t been to the Rose Bowl, which I’m a little bit embarrassed about. I have a couple of muses here who take me around to discover small hidden places and going to Malibu on the weekends is fantastic. We always end up for breakfast at Kings Road Cafe; it’s the best coffee on the planet!”
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