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And now for the main event…

For a designer who launched his career at the dawn of e-commerce, Thakoon Panichgul has chosen a distinctly analog path. While most brands have leaned further into online retail, the 51-year-old Thailand-born Nebraskan continues to favor the tactile over the pixelated, the experience over the transaction… and print over digital. Last week, he unveiled a brick-and-mortar outpost for his label, HommeGirls, transforming a 250-square-foot Chinatown dry cleaner into a retail space that needs to be experienced rather than scrolled through. The compact store houses all things HommeGirls: the magazine, the menswear-for-women shirts, undergarments, and essentials. It’s a return to form, of sorts, for Panichgul, who worked at Harper’s Bazaar in the ’90s before launching his namesake brand, Thakoon, in 2004, and HommeGirls in 2019. Now, with his store, he’s creating a unique fashion ecosystem that isn’t just a sales channel: It’s both a laboratory and a live case study, a place to observe buyers, test new concepts, and connect. “Print never died,” he told me.

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In our conversation, which has been lightly edited for clarity, Panichgul revealed how his “mom-and-pop mentality” and calculated risk-taking have shaped HommeGirls’ evolution into a nimble, multifaceted brand.

Sarah Shapiro: Your beautiful HommeGirls space in Chinatown feels like a bold move when so many brands are focused on digital. Why is now the right time for a physical location? Thakoon Panichgul: I’ve always wanted a physical location. I think that one of the main strategies for HommeGirls—and I saw this at the very beginning—is that print is a big component of this. For the kids who are buying it, and reading it, and hoarding it, print never died. Physical retail is kind of the same thing: old school, back to mom-and-pop, back to analog, if you will. I think they go hand in hand. So while we created a D.T.C. brand, I think it was always in the plan that we would have a physical space to represent the brand’s ethos. So how hard was it to find the right location, or a jewel box of 250 square feet? I wanted it to be small because I had this concept of a dry cleaner in my head for a while, and our first product was a classic shirt. Ever since, we’ve expanded into a capsule of men’s [and unisex] essentials. Most dry cleaners are quite small anyway, so I think for me that was always the plan. I wanted it to feel rooted in New York, and downtown as well. We weren’t looking for a very precious space. We were looking for a space that felt neighborhood-y, that felt cool, that felt small, that felt manageable. It feels like people can come by casually and hang out, read magazines, and buy a shirt. How did the HommeGirls content-to-commerce approach—starting with the magazine and evolving into physical product and now an actual store—come together? Content will always lead. And even before that, the HommeGirls brand itself is rooted in a certain sensibility that leads the content and the storytelling, too. I’ve always looked at the brand as a platform. That’s our north star. Like anything we do, it has to be true to what the HommeGirls brand stands for. In the beginning, it was men’s clothes for women, but in a way that’s real and authentic. We dissected who that woman is and what the community is, and it was really about the attitude—somebody who understands fashion but makes their own rules in the pieces they wear—and that led us to content and storytelling where we were able to grow HommeGirls into more than just one look. Ultimately, that one look will kind of date, and so we have to move into an attitude, so we’ve expanded on that. Same thing with the clothing collection. It started as a very singular thing, and now we’re moving into more interesting propositions that are twisting the classic a little bit and maybe adding some playfulness, adding some color, and injecting a little bit of femininity into it, too. But in a way that’s very HommeGirls.

You’ve had a long career in fashion, one that’s spanned 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and Covid. Thinking back on how you’ve navigated some of those challenges, how are you taking what you’ve learned and bringing it to HommeGirls? Sometimes, in the business world, you can read too much about what other people are doing, and what the trends are, and what the problems are, and then you start to make decisions based off of those things that aren’t right for you. Each brand is completely different, and only you can know what makes it tick. There’s too much information out there, and sometimes it’s really confusing for businesspeople or designers, and that affects macro trends for shopping.

But as long as you’re providing something of value to those people—maybe you’re not hitting 100,000 people all at once, but maybe even if you’re hitting 50 people and you make them really passionate about your products—that’s a win, and you just build on those wins as opposed to having to try to satisfy everybody. So what’s next for HommeGirls? Do you see more physical retail in the future? We’ve been asked to develop the collection a little bit more, so that’s definitely on the horizon. We’re starting to open up retail partners more, too. In the beginning, we were very selective with the retail partners we wanted to bring in, because I was of the mindset that I needed to have solid footing on something before we opened it up to other people. I wanted to have a clear understanding of the products that we wanted to create and the customers who are shopping for it before actually going out and offering it to everybody. We have a roster of about 20 wholesale partners now. We are looking to expand that footprint a little bit more in a controlled way. I’m really excited about that, and curious to discover what I learned from the store and from observing shoppers. There is an opportunity for brand partners that makes sense for the space and for HommeGirls. To use 112 Walker Street not just as a retail operation, but also as a gallery space. It could also close for the month of August, for example, if we wanted to. We don’t have to be married to retail. Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean we have to do it.

I have been messaging Casey Lewis after reading her prom recaps to share retail trends that dovetail with her insights. If I need the origins of some new teen fad, Lewis is my go-to. [After School] Super excited to see that Nike signed both Tara Davis-Woodhall and Hunter Woodhall as track-and-field brand ambassadors. The couple was previously with Lululemon, and I couldn’t keep my eyes off them during the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris. [Nike PR] Ellie Pithers explored Grace Wales Bonner’s 10 years in the fashion industry, including how she expects to end this year with 80 percent growth compared to 2023-24. Her Adidas collabs, which have strategically elevated the sportswear brand into a more upscale designer market, have been key. [Financial Times] Cultured magazine released its annual Cult 100 list today, which editor-in-chief Sarah Harrelson is trumpeting with a flood of fabulous covers. (I love novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s cover in particular. She’s wearing Marc Jacobs.) Sarah will be hosting a giant party and performance at the Guggenheim on Thursday night. Also, I’m on the list, which honors “100 names across five generations who are shaping our culture in real time.” Thank you to Sarah and the team for recognizing me, sure, but also for trying hard to make a magazine that is interesting and current. It’s not easy.

Until tomorrow, Lauren P.S.: We are using affiliate links because we are a business. We may make a couple bucks off them.

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