Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. It’s only Tuesday, but I’m already hard at work on a piece
about Saks for Thursday’s Inner Circle issue. As a reminder, the Inner Circle offers access to the most elite tier at Puck—it’s for industry leaders and those who aspire to become them one day. (You can upgrade your subscription here.)
A few weeks ago, I hopped on the phone with Thakoon Panichgul to chat about his new HommeGirls store on the edge of
Chinatown, something he’d been planning for at least a year. After we said our goodbyes, however, I couldn’t help but think about the store he opened back in 2016 on Wooster Street, which housed his namesake brand before it went on hiatus (and was eventually sold to Naadam). Before Thakoon, the address was occupied by Band of Outsiders, which also shuttered shortly after it opened physical retail. It’s a Gentle Monster now. Either the place is cursed or the business is tough—probably
both.
Panichgul, a magazine editor turned fashion designer, is an incredibly clever guy who really has seen it all during the past 20 years. That’s why I was delighted that he and Sarah “SShapiro@puck.news” Shapiro were able to take a beat and discuss why HommeGirls, his print magazine-cum-fashion line, is working and investing in retail. In other news, we
have a special guest today: Julie Davich, a correspondent for Puck’s art world franchise, Wall Power, with news of an important new collaboration between Nike’s Jordan brand and a Virgil Abloh associate. And I’ve got a bit on the Met Gala afterparty onslaught, too.
Mentioned in this issue: Thakoon
Panichgul, HommeGirls, Harper’s Bazaar, Shein, Nike, Isimeme Otabor, Virgil Abloh, Elliott Hill, Infinite Archives, Pharrell, Donatella, and many more…
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Three Things You Should Know…
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- Sarah
on the Shein price hike: Yes, Shein recently raised their retail pricing, a result of Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs and closure of the de minimis customs exemption. And while there is plenty of schadenfreude about the hikes, everyone I speak to in fast fashion and juniors is facing the same unpleasant options: reconfiguring manufacturing, changing forecasts, adjusting prices, hoping that their lobbyists can create an exemption, and praying that
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was right when he suggested at a recent investor conference that this is all part of some elaborate Trumpian three-dimensional negotiating chess.
Anyway, the same factories powering Shein are also supplying Target, Walmart, and others in the fast fashion or opening price point game—and the Chinese-manufactured goods are subject to the tariffs if they hit the water after April 9. Will shoppers lose their minds about paying $16 for a Shein
dress that used to retail for $12? Probably not—though I wouldn’t be surprised if a Shein haul decreases, say, from five items to three. Either way, Shein will survive this storm. The question, obviously, is whether its American competitors are diversified enough to manage alongside them. —Sarah Shapiro
- Julie on the Nike collab everyone should be talking about: Chicago gallerist Isimeme “Easy” Otabor, who got his start in
fashion by buying for the late Virgil Abloh and Don C’s RSVP Gallery retail store in the aughts, is one of the few to emerge from the designer’s inner circle who managed to do something different—and successfully. He started his own brand, Infinite Archives, in 2015, before becoming a fine art dealer and opening Anthony Gallery in 2019. In September, Nike will launch his new sneaker, a collaboration between Jordan and Infinite Archives.
The $300 shoes will be
released in two colors: one rumored to have a Chicago Bulls red accent (for obvious reasons) and the other purple, inspired by Mike Bibby’s custom Jordans during his Sacramento Kings days. Otabor wore a purple pair at Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton show this past January. Of course, sneaker blogs are all over this, but the traditional fashion press—and even many Nike acolytes—seems to have barely clocked it.
Nike and Otabor have a history dating back to his RSVP
days, and his first exhibition at Anthony Gallery involved a partnership with the Jordan brand. His throwback Jordans feel in sync with Nike’s still-new C.E.O. Elliott Hill’s strategy. As Sarah reported in February, the $50 billion-a-year-in-sales company has been trying to reclaim market share by leaning into a retro playbook. —Julie
Brener Davich
- Is the afterparty over?: Starting Thursday, May 1, New York City is going to be lousy with fashion parties. There’s a Prada store opening, and Cultured mag’s Cult 100 event at the Guggenheim; the requisite Vogue pre-Met events throughout the weekend; a Versace–Moda Operandi cocktail hosted by Donatella and Lauren Santo Domingo; a Moncler party at Casa Cipriani (of course);
and a Wales Bonner–presented night of performances by the likes of the Cavemen, the Joy, Navy Blue, and plenty more—also at the Guggenheim. Sunday is the UTA pre-party. And there are plenty more I’m forgetting or was not invited to.
Met Gala time is the best period of the year to host something in New York: By Saturday, everyone is here from Europe, expressly to socialize, which is fashion’s word for networking.
But, just like last year, the real onslaught happens
after the gala, on Monday night, when there are at least seven afterparties planned. Along with Will Welch’s most official get-together at the Twenty Two (no outside press invited, sponsors include Lexus, Capital One, 1800 Tequila, and Aramis cologne), there’s the Cartier cocktails at Bemelmans (typically the first stop after the gala), Willy Chavarria at the Mark (sponsored by Don Julio Tequila and co-hosted by styling duo
Wayman + Micah), A$AP Rocky at Jean’s, Pharrell at Crane Club, and the (original) Met afterparty at the Boom Boom Room, this year hosted by Burna Boy. (I hear that Dua Lipa is not hosting an afterparty this year. And while there was talk of co-chairs Lewis Hamilton and Colman Domingo collabing, it doesn’t sound like that’s happening.)
Of
course, very few people are actually invited to the gala, so this is an opportunity for industry people to get dressed up (and for the Vogue and Condé crews to blow off steam), and for celebrities and designers to make a little money as hosts. Of course, I always wonder if there are enough people to actually populate all these parties. I, for one, am tired. If you go to any of them, send a report!
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And now for the main event…
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Fashion entrepreneur/designer/publisher Thakoon Panichgul has been an editor, launched his
own label, and founded a print magazine. Now he’s transformed a Manhattan dry cleaner into the first retail outpost for his label, HommeGirls, and is doubling down on analog treasures in a digital world.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Until tomorrow,
Lauren
P.S.: We are using affiliate links because we are a business. We
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Puck fashion correspondent Lauren Sherman and a rotating cast of industry insiders take you deep behind the scenes of this
multitrillion-dollar biz, from creative director switcheroos to M&A drama, D.T.C. downfalls, and magazine mishaps. Fashion People is an extension of Line Sheet, Lauren’s private email for Puck, where she tracks what’s happening beyond the press releases in fashion, beauty, and media. New episodes publish every Tuesday and Friday.
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