VISIONS FROM THE EAST

GROWING UP IN OMAHA, NEB., FASHION designer Thakoon Panichgul always felt more American than Thai. Maybe that was because Panichgul, 29, spent most of his time listening to mellow '70s hits from the Carpenters like Top of the World and I Just Fall in Love Again, or maybe it was because he had more of an affinity for clean, American sportswear than he did for the more ornate styles that are popular in his native Bangkok.

"When I went back there for Christmas last year I noticed that everyone was listening to the Carpenters and Burt Bacharach too," he says, sitting in his loft-like showroom in Manhattan's trendy meat-packing district. Despite his fondness for Western things like '70s light music, Panichgul says his love of fashion, as well as his reserved, almost conservative sensibility, reflects his Eastern origins. "There is definitely an Asian influence in me; I just don't know where it's coming from."

Panichgul (pronounced pan-itch-gal), a former fashion writer who designs under the name Thakoon, showed his first collection at the just concluded New York Fashion Week. He is one of four young Asian and Asian-American designers--including Jeffrey Chow, Derek Lam and Peter Som--who stole the spotlight under the tents in Manhattan's Bryant Park last week with quirky, quiet and sophisticated clothes.

While established fashion stars like Marc Jacobs were wowing the front row with Crayola-bright colors and funky fabric mixes--or, in the case of Narciso Rodriguez, all-white minimal looks--this new group steered clear of any blatant fashion trendiness. Instead, these designers infused their clothes with subtle dressmaking details and a ladylike ease. They also share openly commercial ambition. Though all of them have been in business for just a few seasons, they have attracted the attention of big department stores like Barneys and Bergdorf Goodman.

You could call it an Asian invasion, except that none of these designers would classify his look in such confining geographic and cultural terms, even though each admits that his work is informed by his roots in unexpected ways. "I am not the type to splash dragons all over the clothes," says Som, 33, who grew up in San Francisco, the son of Hong Kong-born architects. Indeed, his clothes are more C.Z. Guest than Suzy Wong, yet he acknowledges that his clean lines and color sense are inspired by traditional Asian architecture and the vibrancy of Asian textiles.

Mostly, though, Som thinks that the current rash of Asian designers and design students in the U.S. is a generational phenomenon. "My parents had more pressure on them to become doctors or lawyers. With this generation there is an open-minded feeling in terms of what you can pursue as a career," he explains. So it is that many Asians, both here and abroad, are entering into fashion and design.

"It's certainly a phenomenon," says Julie Gilhart, vice president and fashion director at Barneys New York. "Many of the designers at [New York City's] Parsons School of Design, where I critique, are Asian." Gilhart says they have a different "demeanor" from extroverted fashion personalities like designer Zac Posen. "They're very serious," she says, "and much more internal."