Critics swooned over Thakoon’s fall 2010 collection. Last night Thakoon was still letting it all sink in at Aloha Rag, where he celebrated the launch of his new men’s sweaters exclusive to the store. However, unlike critics, he didn’t think the collection was so different from his past work. “I think if you actually look at the pieces, they are quintessential pieces. I do think I have this sort of broodier side as well as a romantic side,” he said. “For me, I think that’s what fashion is about, right? You can sort of flip the coin and do things you’re not expected to do sometimes.” He explained the collection was actually inspired by a barnyard animal.
“It started off as this ad that I came across from the late eighties of a sheep that was half-shaven. So it was really bald on one side and the other side was completely full of fur. To me, that was such a beautiful image and it was the right kind of energy that I wanted to capture, which was something that was a bit more raw, a bit more primitive, but at the same time a bit kind of sort of funny and playful.” His heavy-handed use of fur certainly aided fall’s pelt explosion. “I think everyone wants to go back to nature — it’s about the elements, so that’s what I think that has to do with it. Textures are very big for this fall, and so that includes fur. And fake fur even is huge and knitwear, chunky knits and all of those things.”
Could his clothes take an even more bestial route in the future? “You know, I have dreams of designing dog stuff, but not now,” the designer told us. With his little dog Stevie already clad in a navy knit sweater (though, Thakoon claims, not of his own design), we wondered if there could possibly be matching owner-puppy looks by him in his future. “I don’t know, I don’t know … I’m not telling!”
