How Designing for Herself Has Led Fah Chaksuvej to Designing for Women
FAH CHAK jacket and trousers, RABANNE necklace and bag, and HAVAIANAS flip-flops. Photographed by Philip Skoczkowski for the September/October 2026 Issue of Vogue Philippines
Following her stint as a menswear designer at Maison Martin Margiela, Thai designer Fah Chaksuvej brings home a clever sartorial personality.
In time for Valentine’s Day three years ago, Thai fashion brand Fah Chak introduced their Third Base jeans: a slim fitting pair printed with a shadowy hand across its bum, and a kiss mark on the inside crotch.
For a holiday outwardly celebrated for its saccharine nature, the trousers’ suggestive tone leans somewhat unexpected. “I have a very sarcastic take on design which I think adds fun to my clothes,” explains Fah Chakshuvej, the bubbly designer behind her eponymous label. “We sometimes take occasions and turn it around. One year, we did a Tinder theme, and in another, we did a heartless [concept] for V-Day.” The daughter of an interior designer, Fah credits her mother for a childhood spent around design and beautiful objects, which would catalyze a career in the arts. She had taken up two pattern cutting courses by the time she was 14, “which really shaped how I look at clothing differently. I always find it very fascinating to look at garments from a construction point of view.” She became obsessed with how two-dimensional patterns could become three-dimensional, and began exploring ways to make that process interesting.
She eventually moved to London and took up menswear design from the Royal College of Art. After graduating in 2011, she moved to Paris, where she served as a menswear designer at Maison Martin Margiela. A few years later, she decided it was time to come home.
“I feel like the women who wear my clothes are the kind that dress for themselves.”
For Fah, returning to Thailand after more than a decade abroad invited cultural nuances to emerge. “I think there are many aspects to heritage; there’s the visual values and then there is also a deeper meaning to each thing and what they represent,” she reflects. “Because I haven’t lived in Thailand for over 10 years, I feel I had a new and refreshed view after I got back in my mid-20s. I suddenly started appreciating Thai art and how obsessive the patterns and repetitions look, but they feel very soft and inviting.” Compelled to explore this shift sartorially, she began first by making “fun exciting clothes in strong, punchy colors that are also sophisticated, because at the time, we had a lot of sweet girl clothing in Thailand.” She struggled to find something to wear in the local market, so she decided to make her dream pieces herself. Over the years, she developed a core brand DNA that revolves around being brave and simple. She has never been interested in following or setting any trends; instead, her collections gather their starting points from deeply emotional touchpoints. “I feel like the women who wear my clothes are the kind that dress for themselves,” Fah observes. Her clothes are what women “would find sexy in their own language, and not how men or others would see it.”
Her latest signature is an example. Fah’s take on naked dressing involves tops, dresses, and skirts of satin strips cut on the bias, and hand-stitched onto imported tulle before being sewn down. A single dress takes weeks to make by hand. When worn, it gives the impression of individual ribbons floating down the body. This foray into more meticulous techniques is what she balances hand-in-hand with uniform commissions for malls, hotels, and restaurants, which are all projects she’s proud of. Fah has come a long way from those basic pattern cutting classes, but her obsession with dimensionality remains. It’s just that now, she has the experience, and wit, to bring those dream forms to life.
By TICIA ALMAZAN. Photographs by PHILIP SKOCZKOWSKI. Styling by ANNA ODATE. Model: Mayuko Sehata. Hair & makeup: Saika Motoki.
Special thanks to Rickshaw: Kenny.
