Titled “Ghost Lake,” CDLM’s spring collection is a continuation of Chris Peters’s collaboration with the artist Diamond Stingily. “When I started talking to Diamond about doing something together, we had this idea of doing a movie, and then as we were making it, it became more of a multimedia idea [around] how can you document process, how can you document the ideation of a world, how can you document the creation of work?” Peters said at his studio in Manhattan. “It became this sort of meta examination of clothing and glamour and image.”
If it all sounds very abstract, that’s ok, because the clothes that Peters makes are able to stand on their own, both as beautiful conceptual objects and as actually wearable clothes that look good on the body—and they are designed with the body in mind.
The beautiful silk satin jacket in white is padded with organic cotton batting. “I crush the whole thing up and I tie it with string and I let it dry,” he explains. “I love the idea of building texture and dimensionality into the body.” In the lookbook, it’s worn underneath a tank top dyed into a naturally ombré-d shade of red and black, achieved through natural interactions of the fabric with mold. He cut the fabric into strips, then tied the ends around his shoulders to create a simple t-shirt dress. The frayed edges give it a little punk look. One of the best pieces in the collection is a sort of deconstructed black dress with an open draped bodice in tan, and hand-sewn black, white, and salmon “ribbons” decorating the neckline. Peters is proud to showcase the fine details of many of these garments. “There’s always this idea that things can be kind of messy, but they have to be perfect,” he explains. “I think the more intention you can put into a piece, I do feel it becomes more beautiful.”
At Peters’s studio, there are many racks filled with clothes, many more pieces than ever make it into a lookbook. Satin hoodies (“for evening”), “apron-shirts” that resemble collages, necklaces made from ceramic and feathers dipped in latex. He “compulsively” makes clothes. “All I want to do is make stuff, like, nothing else makes me happy.” In this sense, he is more akin to a fine artist, working through life-changing events, ideas, and casual conversations with friends through his practice. Take his army coat. It has been disassembled and reassembled, with ribbons tied around its waist. It is worn backwards by the model over wide-leg trousers. “We started wearing a lot of things backwards, it’s a good luck thing in Ireland,” Peters explains, before pausing for a beat. “I mean, I hope that’s a thing, and it wasn’t just like my babysitter was crazy or something, but that’s how I remember it.” That’s good enough for us.