One-on-one with fashion designer Thakoon Panichgul

One-on-one with fashion designer Thakoon Panichgul

The fashion arena is verging on overload when it comes to ambitious young designers with a point of view and a passion to succeed. But every once in a while, one does manage to break through the din of excess and not only get noticed by those who matter, but woo the world with a sartorial sensibility that’s both arresting and right for the times. Case in point: Thakoon Panichgul, the Thai-born American design dynamo whose star skyrocketed back in August 2008, when Michelle Obama chose to wear a red, black and blue abstract-print kimono dress from the designer’s spring 2009 collection on the night her husband accepted the Democratic presidential nomination.

Panichgul, who graduated from Boston University in 1997 with a business degree, worked as a fashion journalist and then studied design at Parsons in New York, showed promise when he launched his first collection back in 2004. By 2007, he was producing a line for the Gap after Vogue’s Anna Wintour took him under her powerful wing. (You might remember seeing Thakoon in the 2009 Vogue documentary The September Issue.) These days, he is on the vanguard of American fashion, charming contemporary women (including such celebrities as Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, Demi Moore, Sienna Miller and Sarah Jessica Parker) with his modern, innovative, slightly offbeat approach.

Recently, Panichgul paid a visit to the Room in Toronto, where I spoke with him about culture shock, his creative process and a couple of his very famous admirers.