The king of costume after a decade dressing the icon that is beyoncé, peter dundas launched his own label in 2017. here, the norwegian designer discusses how his upbringing and sea-faring heritage have infused his latest collection

When Beyoncé attended the 59th Grammy Music Awards in 2017, she wore a series of creations designed by Peter Dundas – fortuitous exposure for the label he had newly launched with his husband and business partner Evangelo Bousis the same year.

Beyoncé picked up the award for Best Urban Contemporary Album for Lemonade dressed in a red sequin dress with plunging neckline; and performed live on stage styled as a gold-encrusted goddess out of an Erté fantasy. The following day, an article in The New York Times featured more column inches referencing Peter than any of the New York Fashion Week shows that had taken place in the city the same day.

In his most recent role as creative director for Roberto Cavalli, and his roles prior to that with Emanuel Ungaro and Emilio Pucci, the designer had been dressing Beyoncé for more than a decade – including the marigold gown she wore in her Hold Up video for Lemonade; the wardrobes for her Mrs Carter and Formation tours; a black and gold Pucci number she chose for the Met Ball in 2011 and the heavily embellished floor-length dress she wore while singing The Star-Spangled Banner at Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.

“When we launched Dundas we spontaneously said, ‘It has to be B’,” Peter tells us when we meet on Zoom. “And by chance we ran into the person that works on her wardrobe [Marni Senofonte] at a Business of Fashion conference in London. We aired to her how we would like to do something with her soon, and that we had started our own brand.

“She kind of said, ‘Yeah, sure’. Then, when we were on a winter holiday in Mustique, we had a call asking if we were in LA, because B wanted to talk about a project. The next day we met with her and she said: ‘I’ve followed you everywhere, so of course I want to do this with you as well’, which still warms my heart when I think about it.”

At the time, Beyoncé was pregnant with twins, a closely-guarded secret that Peter would initially keep from his team. “That was a challenge,” he laughs. “I couldn’t tell anybody that she was expecting and so, in the beginning, I was like: ‘You know, she’s put on a little bit of weight’. And then as she was growing and we had to adjust the me