In preparation for this Monday’s meet-and-greet at The Bay with New York designer Thakoon, there was one question that took a team effort to solve: How the heck do you pronounce this guy’s name? After a long and arduous thread on facebook, we here at She Does The City have come to the proud conclusion that it’s TAH-koon. Suggestions ranged from THA-koon to Haiku-loon, but luckily all was figured out in time.

If you’re not yet familiar with the name, Thakoon Panichgul began his rise to the top after being featured in The September Issue. What was just another day of Anna Wintour being Anna Wintour put this young designer on the radar. Now, his designs have been worn by the likes of Michelle Obama, Demi Moore and Sarah Jessica Parker.

The pint-sized Thai designer was in town for a preview of his spring/summer collection, where Toronto fashion-ites could sip champagne and oogle the mastermind behind such breezy, feminine designs. The scene: Jeanne Bekker was in front of a mirror trying on a monstrous pair of Pierre Hardy boots, while on the other side Thakoon was off having his photo taken with a herd of bloggers. Though he’d been doing press all day, I couldn’t resist pulling him aside for a one-question interview (“Is that your thing?” he asked. “It is now.”)

Question: “what to you is the perfect dress?” Instead of answering, Thakoon’s jaw dropped and we sort of stood there for a moment, me looking into his open mouth. “That’s soo hard!” he cried. Yes, I mentally note, my one-question interviews will henceforth be doozeys. “I think the most perfect dress is the dress that makes the woman feel the most beautiful in. So it can be anything, it can be a cheap dress, it can be an expensive dress it makes that person emotionally connected to it,” he finally responds.

~ Words by Elli Stuhler
~ Photos by Kira Crugnale