How PZ Opassuksatit is using her designs to create dark comedy and crack you up
Welcome to CHEW THE FAT WITH…, our long-form profile series where we invite you to sit down with fashion’s next generation as they dig deep into their memories. To chew some fat - defined as an informal conversation brimming with small talk - we encourage you to pull up a chair and take a big old bite as we spill the tea on the life and work of the industry’s need-to-knows. Just remember to mop up after yourself.
A cake reading ‘Bruise my Esophagus.’ A scarf-cum-toilet-seat cover. A pair of salad leaf sliders. This is the extraordinary world of eccentric oddities, formally known as PZTODAY. A parallel universe to Earth, the Thai designer turns the mundane objects of our quotidian lives and subverts them into the uncanny; a land where the banal becomes bizarre. Each piece anthropomorphised from our everyday; think napkin rings, but the kind attached with said tissue to your forefingers so the Kleenex are never too far away; hairy phone cases with extensions to add volume while you’re serving looks on important calls (to your mother). And the creator of such impractical outre? The devout maximalist known as PZ Opassuksatit. The conversation begins with the most unabating questions of the decade: how's your lockdown been? How are you actually doing? And what ulterior universe would you rather be in right now than this shit-show? “I’d be in a small garden growing heart-shaped potatoes with my friends,” dreams Opassuksatit. “All organic of course, but then I’d drive around to my friends and family and say ‘Oi, here’s a fresh potato. Catch!’” she says, a glimpse into her mind, a spring of offbeat fetishes and incronguous imaginings.
Born and raised in Bangkok, Opassuksatit established her penchant for design early on, from dressing herself and her dolls when playing as a child. “I also studied piano and electric keyboard at Yamaha Music school and each year they had a competition for all Yamaha students in Thailand. While the others concentrated on practicing their skills, I would always concentrate on the outfit and concept of my show.” A high-pitched laugh erupts as she recounts a deep blue sea medley that prompted her to dress up as a shark, naturally. Spurred on by a household of creatives, her father and sister an architect, brother a jazz musician, and mother a singer - “although she cannot sing,” Opassuksatit recalls how this added to the supportive family environment at home. “We are all very close, which is common of Thai culture, having that respect for one another. But sometimes it’s very gossipy!” She resumes laughing again, this time in mock-protest. “I always seemed to be the centre of the gossip. I don’t know why, but I guess that allowed me to get a thicker skin, to adapt and be more chilled.”
Following her first job as a piano teacher to earn some ‘ca$h’ money on the weekends, Opassuksatit enrolled at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok to study fashion design, which later materialised into a role as Head of Womenswear for two years at Thai label Greyhound named after man’s best friend. What came next paved the pathway for the iconoclastic realm of batshit goodness she now serves at PZtoday. “I planned to move to Paris with a scholarship as I didn’t want to ask my parents to fund me,” and so, she made the move to the city of the L<3VE pre-Emily anarchy to study at the Institut Français de la Mode. “I think Paris gave me more freedom,” she considers.
“In Thailand, if your work is too crazy, no one will buy it. I feel at home in Paris. The people there really push each other to be better.”
Since moving 7 years ago to the epicentre of any zealous croissant-addicts dream, *ahem* Opassuksatit went onto work for the memelords favourite – whoever they may be – Vetements, before launching PZtoday. Defining her practice as an artist, she works by the motto of ‘Selling concept & design for living!’ Her concept-first emphasis somewhat heeds the advice of her childhood self, a lesson in learning how to chill the fuck out. And now? Opassuksatit is somewhat the practitioner of insouciance. “I want my work to send out a positive attitude that gives out love and warmness,” she notes, rejoicing in the nonsensical. Her reference points presently form from “most recently The Office,” but the US version with Steve Carrell because apparently you have to pay more to watch Ricky Gervais. “Oh and I also love Chris Lilley!” she bounces on the spot, wavering her hands in excitement for the actor who brought ‘quiche’ into our everyday parlance. In tune with these television protagonists, the central tenet of her work oozes the same attitude as that of Michael Scott and Ja’mie King. It’s about riffing on the risque that comes with the marmite tanginess and the bittersweet aftertaste of dark humour, which she hails as part of her Thai upbringing. “Dark comedy is huge here, it’s always in the Billboard charts.”
Engrossed by her cinematic influences, Opassuksatit grew fixated by the mockumentary style which led to her project THE LIFE OF THE TOILET back in October last year, an introspection of life on the loo. “I knew I wanted to create something about the toilet, and then I thought, now I want to interview the toilet and build the story up.” Through sculptured human figures, crouched to form the base and arms arced to create a lid, she brings to life voiceless objects because ‘my job is to take care of everybody’s shit’ says her ceramic toilet. While each piece in Opassuksatit’s universe orbits satire, she puts on her serious hat sometimes - albeit with a few holes to allow the parody to slip through - working on campaigns from Helmut Lang’s Helmutland to most recently, Marc Jacobs and Ava Niriu’s Heaven. “I knew Ava from Helmut Lang and she asked if I wanted to do some art direction and design a shop as part of a collaborative project. When I actually came back to Thailand in December, I didn’t realise one of the shops was in the mall in Bangkok.” Her hallmark laugh strikes up again. “I ran in and took a photo and the people in the shop just looked at me like what the fuck are you doing!”
Despite the narrative of 2020, she pauses to think about her highlight from such a calamitous 365 days. “I found a new discovery of my love to write and direct a short film. You might see a lot of video works from PZtoday and my new online shop: PZDIRECT.TV over last year,” which in true PZ mimicry, lampoons the layout of our unwanted lord and masters known as Google. “But for me, the biggest thing was to be recognised by the British Fashion Council as one of 50 in the NEW WAVE: CREATIVES 2020.” Were the award ceremony allowed to take place, there’s no doubt Opassuksatit would be donning another Jaws number. “I miss the intimate feeling and warmness of a physical industry,” she notes. “It’s hard to get that from a digital platform so I can’t wait for this coronavirus to sashay away.”
Pandemic or not, the future of PZtoday isn’t something she likes to ponder on too much. “5 years? That’s too far to think lol. PZtoday is based on today. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. But of course, you can expect the unexpected. Plot twists and absolutely fucking cool things!” What followed was an in-depth discussion about emojis - the red heart is her go to - and we conclude our fat-chewing with a question befitting of this enigmatic soul: what’s a shower thought you’ve had recently? “I work in the shower,” she smiles. “Just standing under the water, I let my mind dream. But I’ve had a lot of kinky shower ideas of late.” Perhaps we’ll find ourselves in the bathroom for PZtoday’s next installation; maybe she’ll erect a life-size snow globe that rains red-heart emojis; or build a raunchy rollercoaster travelling towards a simulated farm in PZWorld full of slightly terrifying taters. Who knows where we’re getting off or if we even want to?
