Thakoon Panichgul’s new collection was for sale on his e-commerce site an hour after tonight’s presentation, and well before the pictures you see here on Vogue Runway went up. The in-season, direct-to-consumer model the designer has lately adopted takes not just department stores out of the picture, but reporters, too. Or it would, save for the fact that the crowd that came to see the video installation and mini show was made up of industry types, not shoppers—though surely there’s some overlap.
The designer’s Wooster Street store opened last September, and his e-commerce operation went live shortly before that. Panichgul put those five-plus months of learning into this 10-look offering. (He makes similarly sized drops about every two weeks.) “In the past, I relied so much on retailers, but what’s beautiful now is that feedback comes directly from customers,” he said. Department stores wanted dresses from Thakoon; shoppers, it turns out, wanted other things, which is why you’ll see a focus on separates and a handful of riffs on the trench.
Though the emphasis is strongly on sportswear, Panichgul isn’t doing basics. The trench is patchworked with a Dutch floral or sliced at the shoulders and lined with a scarf print. His striped shirtdress features a built-in floral sarong wrap, and the waistband of a button-front skirt peels away to reveal a contrast print. These are all ideas Panichgul explored in Thakoon 1.0. Though the spirit is similar, Thakoon 2.0 is significantly lower-priced than his original main line, more in the range of his contemporary label, Addition. Longtime fans will be jazzed to learn that they can have a charming red and sky blue printed silk dress with an adjustable neck scarf for a song.
