With his second collection, Thakoon Panichgul proved to the eager buyers crowding his gallery installation that his well-received debut was no flash in the pan. Against a Mondrian-esque backdrop of blue, green, white, and yellow plastic rectangles, the youthful designer presented 15 lovely looks that, like last season, had all of the flourishes of neoclassicism. Thanks to an influential trip to Tokyo, however, these were "knocked," as he put it, "with sporty elements and shots of color."
As a former fashion editor, Panichgul knows how hip young women like to dress. He tempered the romance of a white pencil skirt with black lace overlay, for example, with a tomboy's trim cardigan and plaid blazer with the sleeves pushed up, and teamed a girly tank made from laminated yellow silk with wool trousers and a long, rakish trench. He also knows how his female peers like to shop: for standout pieces, or "items" as they're known in the business. So he sandwiched white lace between two layers of see-through plastic to create a pea coat that just might be the rain jacket of the season.
