Fashion's new alchemist

BANGKOK  — Two friends  and I were walking on the skyway, also known as those overhead pedestrian walkways that link malls to each other, when I thought I recognized somebody.

“Isn’t that The Alchemists?” I asked my Thai stylist friend Joey.

“You have sharp eyes,” said Joey, who stopped to converse with him.

I had only seen his picture online, yet I recognized him in the flesh.

His name, however, is a bit hard to recall.

Seksarit Thanaprasittikul, 28, happens to be the brainchild behind the fashion label The Alchemists, known for unconventional tailoring with details reminiscent of Belgian designer Ann Demeulemeester.

And no wonder, since Seksarit had worked at Ann’s showroom before heading back to Thailand.

What a pleasant coincidence to bump into him here, of all places, since I was supposed to meet up with him the next day for an interview arranged by our common friend Jay.

Seksarit caught our attention when we saw pictures of his 18-piece collection shown at Elle Fashion Week last October at Central World.

Unlike Manila’s fashion week, where about a hundred or so designers can join in, the editor of Thailand’s Elle handpicks only the best designers in the country to participate in two shows each year.

So one Friday afternoon, Joey and I braved Bangkok’s infamous traffic, and took a couple of train and cab rides to meet Seksarit at his friend’s art gallery at a distant location.

He led us into one of the rooms, which looked like an art school, complete with tables, blackboard, bust, statue and skeletons.

Seksarit arranged his collection on a rack for me to see and encouraged me to try them on.

Luckily I am a model’s size, minus the height, unfortunately.

He helps me put the complicated pieces on and I’m loving the long vest with the hole in the back and dangling strips of fabric, plus the tailored jacket with the same idea.

Seksarit tells me his label was inspired by Paolo Coelho’s book The Alchemist, about a shepherd boy who dreams of seeing the world and learns lessons in his journeys through Spain and Morocco. The boy ends up eventually in Egypt “where a fateful encounter with an alchemist brings him at last to self-understanding and spiritual enlightenment,” according to Amazon.com.

“Many people believe that The Alchemist is someone who can turn something into gold,” Seksarit explains in English. “That everything in this world can evolve from one thing to another. It’s about someone who can turn things to make something better. It’s quite poetic to me. I’m seeing it in a way that I want to make clothes better and I also evolve from one collection to another.”

We watch a video of his latest collection on his Mac, which he says was inspired by a black sheep or rebel.

“When you’re in school in Thailand you have to wear a uniform, but then most of the time I’m not one to wear a uniform properly. So I try to be alternative, having my own freedom to be myself and not to be set in a uniform,” he says.

Seksarit takes a man’s suit and adds a rebellious twist to it, with slashes and unusual fastenings. He translates the menswear into womenswear. Colors are basically black, white and navy, with a touch of silver.

For such a strong presentation, it surprises me to hear that Elle Fashion Week was his first professional collection, having graduated only last year from the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design in the Netherlands.

Seksarit says the Dutch school was not his first choice. Rather, it was the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, which is known for having produced the renowned “Antwerp Six” (Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee).

Seksarit says he took the exam twice but couldn’t get in. Because his college background was political science, he had no previous art skills or training.

He explains:  “Since high school, I always liked clothes and fashion but was not conscious of it.  At some point during my third year I found out political science wasn’t right for me. I saw my friend sketching and it just inspired me somehow. So I took a short course on fashion design at the Alliance Française and just suddenly found this is something I really want to do.”

Still, he graduated from his political science course before moving on to fashion. For two years he took courses in drawing, painting and pattern making, while trying to get into Antwerp, but it was not enough.

While most Thai design students aspire to study at London’s Central Saint Martins or New York’s Parsons School of Design, financially, Seksarit’s family “couldn’t really support the amount of cost to enter. We found out about the Arnhem Academy. At first it was kind of strange because nobody (we knew) had been there before, so I was kind of curious about it. It’s the school where Viktor & Rolf graduated, so I thought maybe it would be such a great school. I imagined at that moment that it could be something unique,” he says.

On his third year, he applied and got an internship at Ann Demeulemeester in Belgium.

For six months, he worked in production, assisted in the fashion show, showroom and archives.

Being the only Asian in production, there was bit of a communication problem because he doesn’t speak Flemish.

Nevertheless, Seksarit calls Ann Demeulemeester “my hero. It was really a great experience for me. I admit that I got influence from her. I’m sure she can see her influence in my stuff.”

Three days after the interview, Seksarit opened his first store at a retail space called GEO. I was no longer in town but was able to order the jacket and vest, which he hopes to finish by Christmas.

His prices range from about 2,000 baht for a shirt and 5,000 to 6,000 for a jacket. Joey and I thought it would be a good idea to order while he’s starting out and still affordable.