Thakoon Panichgul, backstage.Photo: Getty Images
Rising-star designer Thakoon Panichgul’s well-reviewed Fashion Week show — attended by Anna Wintour, a fan — was all the more impressive considering he spent the stretch run before his collection debuted dealing with a surprise crackdown by the Man. The 32-year-old designer recently found out the Tribeca studio space he’d been renting was actually an illegal sublet, and with days remaining before his Monday show, the building’s new owners informed him they would no longer let him work weekends.
“My lawyer was like, ‘As your lawyer, I would advise you to move out as soon as possible,’” said Panichgul. He found a place on Lafayette and Prince and moved the entire office to Soho three days before the show (transporting his collection over the course of three cab rides since the new owners had barred him from the freight elevator). The new space wasn’t finished; lighting hadn’t been installed, and demolition was taking place elsewhere on his floor — leaving the clothes and the models who’d come in for fittings covered in drywall dust. “I kept thinking, ‘Beauty out of chaos, beauty out of chaos,’” he said. “And I got great reviews!” —Jada Yuan
Watch a slideshow of Thakoon’s collection.
