Aloha Rag is one of those legendary NYC boutiques we always try to visit, but get too discombobulated to locate (usually after we hit Varick and the spooky Holland Tunnel). Happily, we managed to find the stark-white shop tonight at the corner of Greenwich and Spring streets, where they unveiled two exclusive cashmere sweaters designed by Thread-fave, Thakoon Panichgul.
"The collaboration came about because I would come and shop at Aloha Rag all the time," says the ever-charming Thakoon. "I always buy their cardigans. They have the best basic, simple cardigans in every color. So...one time I gave an interview, and mentioned their cardigans as a uniform...and [Aloga Rag] saw it, and they were really ecstatic, and called me up and wanted to do something together. So, over a couple of lunches, we kind of came up with an idea, and they basically were like, 'do whatever you want'".
What Thakoon wanted, apparently, was plaid--and lots of it. "I'm sort of obsessed with plaid at the moment," he laughs. "And I have been for a little while. For me, it's about uniforms, and the plaid on the cardigan is sort of a take on a plaid shirt, but almost like morphed into a cardigan, so it's sort of a mash-up." The unisex cashmere sweaters for Aloha Rag may prove Thakoon's segue into menswear, which, he claims, he's always been interested in pursuing: "I think I want to stew over it a bit, in terms of what it wants to be, because i think...it wants to be something different than what's out there."
We're definitley intrigued!
