Peter Dundas on why surrogacy was a magical experience and welcoming baby number 2

Peter Dundas and Evangelo Bousis have one of those relationships in which things happen fast. There’s the meet-cute, seven and a half years ago, when they were introduced at Brian Atwood’s birthday party in Mykonos — and the trip to Miami three weeks later, when Bousis asked Dundas if he wanted to have kids (“Isn’t it a little soon?” Bousis remembers Dundas saying).

Then there’s the recent move to Los Angeles; put in motion after they spent two months in the city in the spring of 2021, waiting on the arrival of their son Alexios, who was born via surrogate. “Two weeks in, Peter was like: ‘Why don’t we move at the end of the year?’” recalls Bousis. And that was that. In December of 2021, they packed up their London apartment, moved out of the headquarters for Dundas – the brand they founded and run together – and settled into a spacious, Frank Israel-designed compound on a hillside in Beverly Hills. “It happened fast,” is something they are prone to saying, of developments in their life and work, megawatt smiles plastered on their faces.

It is in this 7,000 square foot home, where sunshine pours in through walls of windows and views of the ocean give way to the city twinkling at night, that Alessandra Ambrosio is modelling looks from Dundas’ D19 collection (the number is really an organising principle – Dundas is a seasonless brand). She walks onto the home’s brick pool deck, removes a black Yeezy Gap jacket revealing a tiny lime green Dundas dress and slouches into a Wassily chair.

Inside the house, the bustle of a fashion shoot coalesces with domestic life: half-full coffee cups scattered about racks of clothes; makeup brushes laid out attentively near a sage bundle and a Tupperware container of mushy infant food. A stylist manoeuvres a steamer through a stretch of wood floor that an hour ago served as a roadway for Dundas steering Alexios in a red Mercedes push car. A string of mini Norwegian flags hangs cheerfully across a rectangular white sculpture.

It’s the fourth at-home shoot day that week for the couple, for whom there is a faint line between personal and professional – love pours fervently into both. As golden hour stretches over the succulents in the backyard, the team assembles for the last shot of Ambrosio, who now wears a barely-there black dress and combat boots. Alexios squawks in the background with his nanny while the photographer snaps away. Dundas leans in to look at the images on the monitor, and Bousis joins, wrapping an arm around him.

“We’re kind of having an American dream moment,” says Bousis after the shoot, seated next to Dundas on a crisp white couch in front of a black stone fireplace. “We’re doing a lot of LA, New York, Miami – we’re taking the States by storm.” Bousis, who grew up between Chicago and Greece, and Dundas, Norway’s most famous designer, founded their eponymous brand in 2017 in London, where they spent their time when they weren’t at their apartment in New York or their home in Greece.

Related: Exclusive video: Step inside the family home of Peter Dundas

With the London and New York properties recently sold, however, the couple are setting up their life and business in LA. The Dundas brand will soon move into an office downtown. “We’re really excited to be here,” says Bousis. “It feels like things are happening. It’s awake. Culture right now is coming out of LA – film, music, fashion. It’s probably one of the most influential cultural spots in the world right now.”

Bousis lived between LA and New York for 10 years when he was working as a model and an actor, and is determined to show Dundas the splendour of the western US. “There’s so many places that I want to see,” Dundas says. “I haven’t been to Utah. I haven’t seen the deserts.” “I took him to Joshua Tree,” boasts Bousis. “And he’s never been to Vegas, so we’re taking him – we gotta show him.”

The world of the Dundas brand – cut-outs, thigh-grazing hemlines, Kool-Aid colours, animal prints, flesh, sparkle; what the designer describes as “Happy clothes for happy times” – does, as it happens, have a lot in common with Vegas. “I think clothes should make you feel stronger,” says the designer, who has held creative director posts at Roberto Cavalli, Emanuel Ungaro, and Emilio Pucci. “That’s what most of my girlfriends say, that they feel sexy but they also feel elegant.” He has dressed some of the world’s most-watched women: Kim Kardashian in Cavalli; a pregnant Beyoncé at the Grammys in Dundas; a look for Mary J. Blige’s performance at this year ́s Super Bowl, which followed the one he created for Shakira in 2021.

In the past, a packed slate of projects distracted Dundas from possibly starting a family. “I’ve thought about it at different moments in my life and then work has kind of taken over,” he admits. Falling in love with Bousis, however, put the notion of parenthood front and centre. “I’ve always wanted to be a dad, it was kind of my lifelong mission,” Bousis explains. “Before I met Peter, I was like, ‘I want to have a baby’. I was even thinking of doing it alone; my mind was running. And then when we were three weeks into our relationship I asked him: ‘Do you want to have kids? If you don’t want to have kids then we’ll just have fun for a couple of months, but this isn’t going to work’. Then a few months later, I was like: ‘I want to have a baby with you’. And that was it.”

While the decision – like many in their life – came quickly, the baby did not. “It took us four years before our little boy came,” says Dundas. “The process was long, and we had some heartaches,” admits Bousis. “I think people go into it thinking, as we did when we first started, ‘Oh great, we have the best doctor, the best this, the best that’. And you’re like: science. This is going to happen. And then you get the cold shower [of a failed pregnancy] and this is why we do believe that it’s a miracle for this to successfully happen, and to have a healthy baby at the end.”

From the beginning, the men knew they wanted to pursue surrogacy in California – a state with a reputable history for the practice. “It’s the one place where parents are most protected,” explains Dundas. “In Europe, there’s still a stigma attached; it’s difficult to find surrogates, and you don’t have the rights over your own child. Or if it’s a same-sex couple like us, one of the partners has to go through a lengthy adoption process from a surrogate. And it’s heartbreaking because it’s such a wonderful experience. I can’t imagine not having a family like this.”

Related: Dressed in Dundas: The greatest sartorial hits from Norway's most famous designer

Seven-month-old Alexios is a fabulous LA baby: dressed in Chrome Hearts, Bonpoint, and “more Hermès than Peter” when he goes on playdates with friends like Naomi Campbell’s daughter and Derek Blasberg’s twins. Still, his parents’ European heritages are shaping him. “We took a lot of time before the baby was born to prepare ourselves,'' explains Bousis, whose parents speak to Alexios exclusively in Greek. “We met with people – even therapists – to talk about our cultural differences and how we manage that. The things we wanted the most were for our kid to be happy, be loved, and to have the feeling of family, which we both have. I think we share a lot of similarities,” he says, then pauses. “Obviously, he’s Scandinavian and I’m Greek, so as you can imagine, it’s like a telenovela. Sometimes we fight and Peter’s like ‘You’re screaming’ and I’m like ‘This is not screaming. You want me to show you screaming?’”

Parts of Dundas’ Norwegian identity also surfaced. He points, for example, to his interest in Alexios having breast milk for as long as possible (“Nursing a baby is highly encouraged there,” he explains, “it’s quite unusual not to do so”). He recounts a story of “The drama of the breast milk” – a saga that took place when Alexios was one month old and includes two continents, several countries, many drivers, the purchase of “one of those freezers where you’d hide a body,” and frantic calls to other designers about freezing milk in glass jars.

There were also Norwegian lullabies that came out of him effortlessly. “I have no idea who taught them to me, I have no memory of my father singing to me,” he says (Dundas and his younger sister were raised by his father after his mother died when he was three). “And I know not just two or three – we’re talking in the twenties.”

Fatherhood has also pried open Dundas’ discreet nature. “I think the thing that surprised me most for Peter is that he’s so private in general – that’s the Norwegian part of him – and when we had the baby it changed, I think because we had to share our story of surrogacy,” says Bousis. “We had to do it for the kids who don’t think they can have a family.

You’d be surprised, because we live in big cities and think families like ours are normal, but it’s still not seen that way. Once we started opening up about it, we saw the response, and I think it opened you up more,” he says, looking fondly at Dundas, who nods. “I think that started when I met you as well, because you’re so open. And I’m also pretty proud of Alexios,” Dundas adds. “I want to share him with other people, because he brings them joy. So I try to not be the savage that I probably am by nature,” he says laughing.

The milestones keep coming, and quickly. During Alexios’ first trip to Norway in December, when he met his cousins (“I’d love for him to one day stay with them and go to sailing school like Norwegian kids do,” says Dundas), the family toured the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, which is under construction in Oslo and will open in June. Dundas will be a central part of the contemporary fashion design gallery, with his archival pieces worn by Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, HRH Crown Princess Mette Marit and more on display. “Dundas has continuously draw n impulses from different cultures into his collections, but has also kept his Norwegian cultural heritage with him,” says Karin Hindsbo, the museum’s director. “He’s been an inspiration to aspiring fashion designers, and is a significant representative for contemporary crafts and design.”

“It’s an incredible honour,” says Dundas. “I try not to think too much about it, but of course it’s thrilling.” Bousis interjects – “It’s amazing, and the space is amazing. He’s being very Norwegian right now, but I’ll be the Greek and tell you everything: he deserves it. It’s amazing.”

Just before the arrival of that milestone, however, Dundas and Bousis will embark on another. In March, the couple will welcome a baby girl. “I’m sure she’s going to keep us on our toes, and it’s going to be really fun,” says Dundas, smiling. “I hope she’ll like having us for her dads.”