Photo: Imaxtree

When the lights went down inside the Plaza Hotel’s ballroom last night for Thakoon‘s spring summer show the soundtrack said “Old Western” while the curated smell was more suited to an Indian spice market. The vibrant collection followed suit, starting with cowboy hats and yoked western shirts before morphing into sari-inspired dresses saturated in bright colors and flecked with gold. So how did the designer get from one point to the next? “I started with the whole cowboy thing,” Thakoon said, backstage after his show, “the idea of romantic America, this notion that’s sort of lost really, not America anymore but this coolness of cowboys, this free spirit. Then, when we were doing print research—looking at bandannas and paisleys—that kind of led us to India.” Like fall’s winning collection, which also merged two disparate cultures—the Masai and Versailles—it worked. The pink hair and colorful cowboy hats made for a fun runway experience but it’s the little dresses we expect to see everywhere come spring. “I always feel like I do red carpet in a way that’s not red carpet,” Thakoon said when asked about the collection’s Hollywood-potential. “It’s like our evening stuff is usually with flats.” Maybe that’s why we like it so much? As for exactly which fashion forward starlet he’d love to see don a spring frock first, he was speechless: “My brain is fried.”

Click here to see the rest of the spring collections!