Five Fits With: Somsack Sikhounmuong, Creative Director of Alex Mill
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Somsack Sikhounmuong, creative director of Alex Mill and this week’s subject, is a true example of climbing the fashion ladder to the top. Born in Toronto, he later found himself in New York to attend Parsons. After graduating in 1999, he took his first job at Diane Von Furstenberg before spending a large chunk of his career at J.Crew.
“I started as an assistant accessories designer and by the time I left, I was director of men's and women's design” says Sikhounmuong. Alex Mill was founded by Alex Drexler, son of Mickey Drexler, the menswear legend and former CEO of Gap and J.Crew, who currently serves as the brand’s CEO. “Five years ago, Mickey and I were both out of a job and he suggested we have a call with Alex, and the rest is history” recalls Somsack. When he started working for Alex Mill, the brand only made men’s clothing, but after a year, with his help, it rebranded and relaunched with women’s alongside a fully rounded offering for guys.
I purchased an Alex Mill work jacket a few years ago and received an email from Alex and Somsack thanking me. While I knew the email was automated, it came from their real emails, so I sent a note back saying that I wanted to work with them. Luckily for me, they went for it; I had the pleasure of meeting Somsack not long after. I was taken with his style, sure, but I also had a really great time talking with him. Read on for his thoughts building a uniform, finding outfit inspiration one item at a time, and plenty more.
Fit One
There are so many clothing brands out there. Describe Alex Mill and what sets it apart from other brands.
What I love about Alex Mill is the edit. You don't walk into an Alex Mill store overwhelmed by the choices. It's not a lot of choices, but hopefully they're the right choices. We don't do 100 shirts. We do 10 perfect shirts. We do three perfect pairs of pants. That goes across men's and women's. Good quality, stylish clothes. Hopefully it helps you every day because it's just a uniform of sorts. The older I've gotten, I just know what I like and what I look good in, and hopefully I’m able to extend that to the stuff we design. It's just not complicated clothing. You wake up, you get dressed, and you're just out the door.
It was a men's brand first, and then you guys decided to do women's as well. What are the differences and similarities between designing for men and women? Why did you guys choose to expand to women's?
When Alex launched the brand in 2012, he was getting a lot of women coming into the store asking if there was women’s and there wasn’t. That didn't matter because they would just buy the men's stuff. Obviously, men dress very differently than women, but there's something about the way men dress—and I don't want to say it's like a boring uniform—but there's an ease to what they do and how they put stuff together that I think makes just as much sense for women. Why wouldn't a woman want to get up and not have to fuss too much with what she's wearing and walk out the door and know that she looks great? Those are two huge similarities with how we design each collection. It's not about themes as much as about pieces here. Every season we look at the perfect pant, the perfect jacket, the best T-shirt, and then we make sure that each piece works well together as a collection and as a wardrobe.
Fit Two
Can you remember how you first became interested in clothing and style?
My grandma and my mom sewed at home. We would get our birthday gifts and we would go to the fabric store and pick a fabric, and then they would make us stuff. At school, we had fashion magazines in the back of the classroom to cut and paste with. My sister and I would take them. We would rescue them and take them home. We knew that we didn't want these chopped up. That was my first time seeing fashion and what it could do and how it made people feel and how it made me feel seeing these really beautiful images of people dressed up.
Has your personal style changed much since you started working at Alex Mill? How have you honed yours over the years?
Not so much at Alex Mill, but through getting older. I just have a lot less time and I want to spend less time getting dressed. I still like getting dressed, but I don't want to have to complicate stuff too much. Like I was saying before, I know what I like. I know what looks good on me. I know comfort has been a much bigger deal day to day. I joke because I wear my Stan Smiths so much because they're the only shoe that I can just slip on. I don't even want to bend down and lace up shoes anymore. I think it's gotten to that level. Just uncomplicated but comfortable stuff that’s still stylish and looks good.
Fit Three
Do you think that being a creative director has changed that for you? I feel like you're giving so much of your mental energy to figure out clothes for other people.
I think we'll probably have to do a deeper dive into that. But I think there's something there. The fewer decisions I have to make in my life, the better. If someone can help me decide, even better. Hopefully, at Alex Mill, that's what we help people do. We've decided for you that these are the outfits. These are the pieces that you need. And I feel the same. I always joke with my trainer, too. It's like the one hour in a day where I don't have to decide anything. Someone's telling me what to do and I love it.
Any tips for Esquire readers in wanting to simplify their wardrobe or reassess stagnant style?
A great, roomy shirt is always important—a shirt that looks great washed, that you don't have to iron. That feels really cool. If you have one of those, it's a good starter to any outfit. You can wear it with jeans. You can wear it with dress pants, or with chinos and sneakers. The fact that it's a little rumbled, I always love.
So, start with an item.
Yeah, always start with an item. That's how I shop too, and that's how I get dressed in the morning.
Fit Four
You've been in the business for a long time. In what ways has the industry changed? Are any of the changes fleeting versus timeless?
The way we access info, the way we access trends... they're even more short-lived now, just because everyone is on the phone looking at these trends and attention spans are much shorter. So it's constantly just trying to figure out what the next thing is. And that's exhausting. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I definitely know it's a new thing.
It seems people can produce clothing faster, too.
It's not a good thing. Obviously from a manufacturing point of view, but also from a closet point of view. Then you're just consuming to consume all the time. Do you actually even look good in this or do you actually really like what you just bought? Or is it just because you saw it on the internet or on Instagram?
Do you have any favorite brands outside of Alex Mill?
I love 45RPM—tried and true. Casey Casey, Margaret Howell. Vintage I always love, just always, always. The wear and the patina that each thing comes with, it's just pre-broken in, which is a win for me. Yeah, they make up probably most of my closet between Alex Mill and all those brands.
Fit Five
I know you love food. Can you share three favorite spots in New York and in Toronto?
In New York, Rosella, which is a new sushi place in the East Village I love. I always love Il Buco for a tried-and-true classic Italian place. The atmosphere is just as good as the food. And there is a Thai place out in Astoria. It's a boat noodle place called Pye Boat Noodle, and it's just very reminiscent of the meals that we would get in Thailand when I visit. In Toronto, there's one Chinese place that I’ve been going to since I was a kid. It's called Swatow Chinese Restaurant. We've been going there forever and they just make good stuff. Then, Terroni and Azhar.
When you're not working, what are you doing with your down time?
The gym and ceramics are probably what take up most of my time. I go to a ceramics studio out in Long Island City and play around for three or four hours a weekend. And during that time, I'm not on my phone, which is kind of strange these days. It's a great change.
If you had to wear one outfit for the rest of your life, what would it consist of?
A pair of jeans, a gray T-shirt, a hoodie, and sneakers.
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