Peter Som has been appointed as the new designer for Blue Les Copains, the diffusion line of Italian brand Les Copains.
Som has been supervising the brand's collections since the 2014-15 Autumn/Winter season, and will serve as the brand's official designer from Spring/Summer 2015.
After majoring in fine arts at the University of Connecticut, Som studied fashion and design at Parsons School of Design. While there, he worked as an assistant at Michael Kors and Calvin Klein, and in 1998 launched his own label, Peter Som. Highly acclaimed for his bold prints and elegant designs, Som has collaborated with Kohl's Design Nation and Tommy Hilfiger, among others. Les Copains was founded in Italy in the 1950s by Mario Bandiera as a luxury knitwear brand made in Italy. Blue Les Copains was spun off as its daily use line, Les Copains Blue, in 1997-98 Autumn/Winter, and the brand name was changed to Blue Les Copains from 2014 Spring/Summer. In Japan, Itochu Corporation signed an exclusive domestic import and sales contract with the Italian company BVM, and Toray Diplomode became the sole distributor, with sales to major retailers beginning from 2014 Spring/Summer.