United Bamboo (Q8793)
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clothing brand
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | United Bamboo |
clothing brand |
Statements
If there was one surefire hit in this season's United Bamboo collection, it had to be the neon green parka. Or maybe the cobalt blue parka. And possibly the orange one. Frankly, United Bamboo designer Thuy Pham is sick of making the damn parkas, as he admitted at a walk-through of the collection. But he keeps at it. "The people I know mostly want to wear clothes that are nice but, you know, a little boring," Pham said. "So I keep myself interested by playing with the details."When Pham and his partner Miho Aoki get the details right—as they did, a few seasons back, with their now signature parka—they knock it out of the park. And there were more than a few looks here that, if not quite home runs, made for solid plays. Riffing off preppy—and more specifically, the way English punk kids wore their preppy school uniforms back in the day—Pham and Aoki turned out a number of strong, precisely tailored pieces in green and red plaids, and elaborated the theme in plaid knits. Super-dense and nicely oversize, the knits were a definite winner. Elsewhere, Pham and Aoki integrated some femme into the look with waterfall ruffles and microdot silks. The punchiest pieces were done in a hand-painted landscape print. Overall, as Pham would acknowledge, there was nothing too groundbreaking here, just a nicely twisted take on the conventional.
13 March 2012
"You know, we just wanted to makerealclothes," designer Thuy Pham said with a shrug after the United Bamboo show today. "Like, the kind of thing people could wear to work or whatever." Pham's matter-of-factness seemed appropriate, considering the collection he and United Bamboo co-designer Miho Aoki sent down the runway today: crisp cotton and silk shirting, frilled here and there with girlish detail. Clean, almost-basic leather jackets and skirts. Dress-up/dress-down high-waisted trousers, wispy silk dresses, and linen shorts. Microdots. Chambray. Barely there stripes. Lots and lots of neutrals. As Pham said, he and Aoki weren't trying to reinvent the wheel this season. But there were a lot of niceties that shoppers will appreciate, such as the contrast collar on a striped blouse, or the flutter of fabric on the sleeve of a drop-waist, printed maxi.And then there were pieces that made you think Pham might have been underselling the ambition here. A pair of gauzy gray harem pants, for instance, had a particular volume and movement that suggested a lot of care had gone into their construction. And a blazer toward the close of the show that had an internal crisscross-strap closure turned out, on inspection, to be comprised of two different patterns, front and back, that had been made to conform to one another. Pham owned up: "I was looking at this old Miyake stuff; it was something on YouTube," he said. "But that stuff was pretty crazy. I wanted to see if you could take those ideas and do them in, I guess, a more reasonable way."
8 September 2011
The United Bamboo girl has been on a tomboy streak the past few seasons. For Resort, designers Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki had vintage navy uniforms on the brain, and they really ran with the maritime theme. Bateau-stripe linen sweaters, lace-up details, and knotted rope prints were sweet additions to the menswear-inspired silhouettes here. At times the effect bordered on twee, as was the case with a sailor-collar peacoat jacket adorned with gold star pins and embroidered anchors; even without the white cap in the lookbook, it felt a littletooShirley Temple on the Good Ship Lollipop. But, as Thuy noted, "our customer always wants an element of…cute." For the most part, the rest of this collection was well thought out, boasting wearable pieces like a parka jacket with zip-off sleeves, a sharp tuxedo blazer, and a soft chambray wrap-effect dress.
21 June 2011
Fashion week spectators have been dragged to some unprepossessing locations, but the blighted block where United Bamboo staged its show today might take the cake. Over there, an entrance ramp to the Lincoln Tunnel. Over here, the ass-end of a truck depot. Other than that, nothing except biting wind off the river. This, you couldn't help thinking, must be where hope goes to die.And then hope was reborn: Upstairs, safe from the chill, Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham debuted a generally excellent Fall '11 collection. The inspiration was menswear, a theme developed through tailoring, plaids, and lots of wool suiting fabrics, and grappling with mannishness seems to have freed Pham and Aoki to work a little looser while still hewing to detail. Case in point: an absolutely must-have navy peacoat, cut square and inset with muscular panels of dun shearling. The coat had some of the winsomeness one expects from United Bamboo, and all of the finickiness regarding proportion and cut, but it felt totally unmannered. A few more examples: a long gray trenchcoat in nubby knit wool, a car coat in fuzzy plaid mohair, a short crepe jacket cheekily corset-laced in the back. If you've noticed a theme developing, good work—the outerwear was indeed impressive all around.Pham explained after the show that the menswear inspiration, and the amount of tailoring it entailed, led him and Aoki to explore ways to soften their collection. Hence the emphasis on tailored knitwear (to wit, that nubby knit trench) and on draping. A couple of draped black dresses, though good on their own, felt out of place, but U.B.'s gently draped trousers looked exceptionally smart teamed with the brand's flat over-the-knee boots and cropped blazers. The look was mannish in inspiration, clearly, but this suit was all woman. Cheers to that.
11 February 2011
"I started out thinking outdoorsy, L.L.Bean style," Thuy Pham, one half (with Miho Aoki) ofUnited Bamboo, said in his studio today. But Leon Leonwood Bean likely wouldn't recognize his influence on the clothes that Pham showed today. Outdoors, maybe. The dominant shape was a jodhpur-style pant with equestrienne details like reinforced seams and double button plackets; Pham and Aoki made it their own by adding a slightly dropped crotch, exterior patch pockets, and cropping it at the calf. Cropping, in fact, was the byword of the whole collection. Matching jackets were cut off, too, making for an off-kilter silhouette. Outerwear was nipped: A series of wool peacoats in blazing red wool were cut high on the waist, or had their arms shorn to become cap-sleeved vests. Red has been a key color for statement coats lately, and these pieces were among the collection's strongest. Second place to the grid-patterned Japanese knits: cardigans, bloomers, and high socks.
15 December 2010
A word about cool: At the United Bamboo show this morning, perennial cool kids Kim Gordon, Harmony Korine, and Karen O were seated in the front row. This is worth mentioning because their presence raises the question: Why is United Bamboo cool? The look is fetishistically clean-cut, the vibe demure. The clothes convey the kind of detail-driven precision that is usually associated with model-train enthusiasts. Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki don't do trendy and they don't do directional. Season in, season out, they give a gentle nip and tuck to the classic, and call it a day. United Bamboo should be boring.And yet the best United Bamboo collections always have a pervy quality, as though the designers were persistently distracted by their curiosity about what "nice" girls might do in the backs of cars. For Spring, the pervy-ness was made relatively explicit, as Pham and Aoki aired out the Victorian underwear drawer. Coy white button-up jumpers were shown both alone and as underpinnings, and there was a kinky frisson to seeing the jumpers' bows and ribbons dangling out below a double-breasted linen blazer or a pair of high-waisted suede shorts.Victorian bathing costumes led Pham and Aoki on two seemingly divergent paths: One led to the beach, a palette of sand and grass, and then on to sporty silhouettes and marine colors; the other led to the boudoir. Some of the best looks fused all this together, notably a pair of athletic short shorts in black lace and a red suede T-shirt-shaped apron dress cut away to reveal, at the back, a formfitting nude dress. For the most part, though, this collection's strength was its simplicity. A jersey minidress knotted in front, linen bicycle shorts, and spare-draped, trapeze-shaped, and A-line dresses all affirmed the influence of minimalism.Meanwhile, accessories continue to be developed at United Bamboo. In addition to expanding the brand's selection of shoes (the best of which was a pump with a wood heel and ballet-slipper-kid vamp), this season marked its second canvas bag collaboration with Head Porter, and the introduction of sunglasses made by Facial Index. The sunglasses looked especially on point—a little nerdy, a little cattish. Just the kind of thing a nice girl might wear when she's being bad.
10 September 2010
There's been a note of boyishness in the United Bamboo collection lately. Last fall, Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham sent suiting separates down the runway, and now, for Resort, they're vacationing, as it were, in classic Oxbridge, with a range that takes England's Henley Royal Regatta as its theme. It doesn't get more proper than the century-plus-old boat race on the Thames, but no fear that UB is getting stuffy. Look closely at a floral calico, and you'll spot a tiny Pac-Man-style ghost. A larger flower array suggested a hothouse gone to seed. Feminine and masculine played off one another in the proportions of nipped-in mini blazers cut close to the figure and formfitting trousers. (Intriguingly, Pham promises a sexier show to go along with this closer crop for Spring.) The Japanese-made knits, introduced last season and expanded here, were a standout—just the sort of open-weave sweaters a lad would want for a chilly English day on the river.
11 July 2010
Is Amelia Earhart shaping up to be an early muse of the season? A girl in a vintage aviator cap had a trio of top street-style photographers swooning earlier in the week, while bomber jackets and full trousers have popped up in several shows—most recently at United Bamboo. A photograph of the famed pilot was indeed the influence for Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham's latest collection. "[It's] a tribute to a fearless, adventurous woman," Pham said.You don't have to be a risk taker to pull off most of these looks, though. On offer were nicely tailored wool suiting jackets, draped silk dresses with bow details, and, yes, United Bamboo's take on a flight jacket (in wool with fur panels). Fall featured more menswear-inspired details than some of the duo's recent efforts. Aoki and Pham still maintained the sweetness inherent to the brand, but playing it off against more masculine silhouettes served to heighten the charm.
12 February 2010
If fashion is a circus, then its ringmasters this week are Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham of United Bamboo, and its bespectacled band conductor is Sean Lennon, who provided the music-box soundtrack for the label's most enchanting outing to date."I had flowers on my mind," Pham said. Inspired by the garden parties of the Wallis Simpson era, he and Aoki showed big picture hats that made the models look like dolls, two-toned Deauville-ian spectator shoes, tea-length hemlines, and much curvilinear and organic (as opposed to geometric) origami construction. The French illustrator Pier Fichefeux provided a primitivist bloom print that was sewn up into both cocktail and day looks.Although there were plenty of sophisticated party dresses here, there was also a sense of childhood innocence, of playing dress-up. Pumps were sparkled up with a confetti sprinkle of sequins; taffetas were metallicized to add texture and glitz; and Empire-waist jumpers—like the inky one with sheer insets that closed the show—brought a touch of Pierrot to the joyous goings-on.
11 September 2009
There was a seat reserved for Kanye West at United Bamboo. Apparently the rapper has blogged about the brand. And even though West was a no-show in the end, there was still plenty of support on hand for Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki. Waris Ahluwalia, Chiara Clemente, Sissel Kardel, the Confetti System trio, Sean Lennon, James Iha (who did the music), and Rita Ackermann (who designed a print used in the collection) were front and center. So was Terence Koh, the art world's reigning It boy—and UB campaign model. How does Koh define the label's appeal? "United Bamboo's clothes remind me of being a schoolgirl or boy," he said. "They have a sense of innocence."Cue look one: a shapely gray melton wool jumper worn over an organdy blouse. Later on, there were plaid-bodied and white-collared "cleric" shirts. The outstanding looks in this collection, though, were the grown-up architectural coats, constructed with hexagonal and triangular pattern pieces—and a lighter hand than in the past. Less convincing were fanciful metallic jacquards that jarred with otherwise sober—and at times seriously chic—tailored pieces. That's not to say there was no fun in the lineup. In keeping with Pham and Aoki's aim to make things "more dressed up," there were two sweet and simple cocktail dresses that should help the wearer create a stir.
13 February 2009
Before their show, Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki did some spring cleaning, starting with a decision to present their menswear separately to make a bit of room for "optimism"— the pair's key word this season. Sweeping away their sometimes over-literal architectural references and what Pham describes as a tendency to "fuss over very complex pattern-making," they let in the light, allowing themselves to play with sunny pastels, zippy brights, and looser silhouettes.James Iha provided an upbeat custom soundtrack that complemented a collection with two threads running through it: a soft preppiness and an origamilike construction. These two seemingly incongruous themes balanced harmoniously. Among the user-friendly twisted classics on the runway were a powdery-blue and white mattress-ticking dress; a roomy, hoodless parka; and a navy blue shorts suit that actually made the concept look like a viable wardrobe option. Pham said that the duo was "having a bit more fun" with this collection—and the audience was, too.
5 September 2008
Over the past year, Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki's explorations of architecture and origami have been quite literal-minded, replete with references to geodesic domes and Herzog and de Meuron. The result was Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 collections that were somewhat heavy-handed, somewhat predictable. Well, third time's the charm: This season, their more abstracted construction gestures—as in the opening look, a black coat with a folded, beaded collar, or the cerulean jacket with 3-D prism pockets—kept the proceedings more light-handed and interesting. The appropriately upbeat music was put together by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who sat front-row with band member Nick Zinner.United Bamboo is known for blending slightly twisted takes on preppy classics with kawaii elements. Cute returned for autumn with a leitmotif of bows, which popped up in different forms throughout the show. If some experiments with industrial materials (like a sequined dress with an overlay of cord and metallic tubes) fell flat, a series of ladylike blouses paired with paper bag-waist pants and skirts lifted the duo to higher ground.
1 February 2008
Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki's enigmatic show notes cited Herzog and de Meuron, but if architecture was the duo's starting point, it only really came across in glimpses: in the origami detailing on the waistband of a flaring skirt, say, or at the neckline of the smock dress that opened the show, or on the front and back of a cropped, button-front jacket that was strangely heavy for Spring. As for the rest, it looked like a standard cross section of United Bamboo's reinvented classics: the seersucker suit, the shirtwaist dress, a windbreaker not in nylon but in luxe patent leather."You get what you came for," said one editor on her way into United Bamboo's show, referring to the predictability that has caused some to lose interest in the line. And though there was some on-trend news here—high-waisted, rolled-hem shorts worn with a prim golden Lurex puff-sleeve blouse; a flaring skirt teamed with a contrast-collar button-down shirt—the collection did feel rather flat.
7 September 2007
Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki were thinking about architecture. An origamilike building technique—¿blocks,¿ as they called them, of fabric folded in on itself to create a square—turned up in various guises, from the velvet-ribbon trim of an A-line dress to the waistband finish of a poufy plaid skirt. While striking on a navy coat and effective on a plaid shirtdress, in other instances all these folds didn¿t seem to do much but add bulk to even the slenderest of runway-model frames.For the ironic hipster with a window office at an ad agency there were, as always, desirable revamped classics, like a toggle coat, a three-piece shorts suit, and tight gloves of shimmery, cyborg gunmetal. Black sheer stockings layered over opaque white tights, on the other hand, were a hard sell. An ensemble featuring a leather riding jacket and plaid jodhpurs was satisfyingly tough but seemed incongruous among dresses that looked like Edwardian children¿s clothes. The last look, a sequined frock with a petal-tiered bell skirt, was described in the program notes as ¿geodesic¿—as in Buckminster Fuller¿s dome—but might more simply have been labeled an homage to Paul Poiret.
3 February 2007
Change was in the air at Exit Art, where Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki presented their United Bamboo collection today. Gone was last season's post-modern hipster; in her place wasla garçonne, jaunty in nautical stripes, bow-tied shirts, and golf sandals. (The men, in contrast, wore black velvet Mary Janes.) The collection had a touch of vintage, a touch of thingskawaii, but remained fresh and true to the United Bamboo aesthetic. "Everything we do is mashed up without being too obvious," offered Pham.To a soundtrack by Panda Bear (a solo effort by Noah of Animal Collective, some of whose work is published on UUAR, United Bamboo's record label), the designers reprised fall's strong volumes, but in softer, more languid fabrics. A mariniere striped minidress had a front drape "like a deflated balloon," as Pham described it. It didn't hit a flat note, though; this is a collection with a lot of buoyancy.
7 September 2006
From the "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" cover on the soundtrack to the final pair of leggings, United Bamboo's fall presentation embraced the eighties revival wholeheartedly, a little too much so at times. The real starting point for this collection, though, was Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham's new interest in menswear. They showed men's looks alongside the women's for the first time, and later this year they are debuting a store for gents in Tokyo. That meant, according to Pham, that "the womenswear was designed to go with the men's."The male influence (specifically, the designers had "dandy street kids" and the style of post-punk Brit singers like the Jam's Paul Weller and Echo and the Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch in mind) was felt in the choice of fabrics and the styling. A houndstooth jacket and pants had a mannish, eighties-style, dress-for-success feeling. The show's focus also led to some untenable items. Suspendered pouf skirts, for example, showed more attention to theme than wearability.There was a concerted effort to play with volume throughout. Spring's sweet bib-front dresses were transformed for fall into baggy oversize ones, including a standout black number worn by Michaela. And among the highlights of the show were the opening bubble coats. Dramatic in their shape, heft, and texture, they filtered in a modern way the work of Cristobal Balenciaga and the Japanese designers who first showed in Paris in the (real) eighties.
2 February 2006
The original motive behind United Bamboo, the 7-year-old line from Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham, was to interpret preppy American classics through the perspective of an arch observer. It's an obsession they've never truly abandoned, but now, there are broader influences thrown into the mix. For instance, Pham names Le Corbusier's design of the Indian city Chandigarh as their current fixation, and the architect's drawings were featured on patchwork tees. Pham's quick to add, however, that "nothing is literal," which neatly sums up the appeal of the line.With their typical sweetened cynicism, the show opened with a white tennis dress subverted with vibrant zippers—some functional, others not—which, along with buckles, were a recurring motif. That summer Kennebunk favorite, seersucker, was toughened up and turned into a motorcycle jacket, and its slightly brawny vibe was present throughout (particularly with the creepers—reworked with flat, pointy soles—which were big crowd-pleasers). A bibbed tuxedo-style shirtdress with a dropped hem was a nod to the Gatsby era and was equal parts masculine and feminine. These hard/soft, greaser/soc contrasts were most successful in the first half of the show. Later, the African and ribbon-latticed dresses seemed overly decorative and diverted from Aoki and Pham's real strength: seditious versions of country club classics.
8 September 2005
At first, United Bamboo's fall show seemed headed perilously close to territory previously charted by Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesquière, with its play on A lines and circular volume, and Koos van den Akker-esque paneled inserts of different fabrics on shoulders and sleeves. But what emerged in the end was something rather more original.The inspiration for this collection, revealed Thuy Pham—he designs the line in conjunction with Miho Aoki—was Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 movieSolaris. "We wanted to reference science fiction," said Pham backstage, "but not to be too literal. We contrasted the geometric, sculptural look of the clothes with natural wools and tweeds." Their approach worked best with the gray wool jersey dresses layered with gray tops, one of which was adorned with panels of bright lime, pink, and blue; militaristic flannel minidresses, one in camel, the other in black; and a soft, yet severe, pleated shirt and skirt that looked like it would have passed muster with the Politburo.What really intrigued, though, was an influence that seemed to come from closer to home. Those zippers that etched the body? That intricate, eye-catching contrast of fabrics? Traces, perhaps, of the work of the late Geoffrey Beene, making contact with a whole new generation.
3 February 2005
United Bamboo showed an accomplished, if somewhat uneven, spring collection that touched on the themes of the week (peasant and safari looks, for example) while maintaining its signature style. The action was mostly in the details: silk knit tank dresses with woven panels at the bust; lively touches of gold on floral blouses and skirts, and hand-sewn strips on the cotton tunics for a touch of crafty individuality. Fluid jerseys, crisp cottons, and a mix of prints added to the interest.Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham, the line's designers, cut a mean jacket, which they showed in safari and tuxedo versions, worn with wrap-over pants and culottes for an interesting play on proportion. But those lighter peasant-style pieces hit the most felicitous note for spring.
12 September 2004
Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham have been part of New York's indie art-fashion scene for half a decade now, but this season marked the United Bamboo duo's runway debut. Held on Park Avenue at the Scandinavia House, a venue chosen for its clean modernity, the show drew Proenza Schouler's Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough in the front row, and featured a live soundtrack of breathy vocals and acoustic guitar by Together, the brand-new musical collaboration between Rusty Santos and Noah.United Bamboo like to play on all-American, usually preppy, staples, and their fall show was billed as "downtown chic going to an uptown party." The uptown quotient predominated in a succession of proper ensembles—tweedy and pleated skirts, pin-tuck trousers, bow-tied dresses. While a certain amount of irony was implicit, it was a relief when fur- and scarf-trimmed box jackets were removed to reveal more adventurous, even punky, layered and pieced tops. There were also some interesting tailoring details, such as a removable tail on a tuxedo suit. The "disheveled glamour" Aoki and Pham aimed to evoke was most successfuly achieved in a striking outsized navy stripe trenchcoat, pea and duffle coats with expandable pockets, and a pleated skirt gathered by a wool harness at the waist.
11 February 2004