Fashion brand BULAN aims to ‘show the world what knitwear can be’

Designer Beam Ratchapol Ngaongam is not interested in chasing trends. The Thailand-born, New York-based artist works in the textile medium, specifically knitwear, and started the brand BULAN after a stint at the luxury fashion house Proenza Schouler. While the journey since the brand’s inception has been full of twists and turns, his passion for knitwear has remained unwavering.

Ngaongam, who grew up in the beachy Thai town of Rayong, first came to the United States during high school as an exchange student. Those teenage years fostered a passion for art and design, and he initially planned to pursue a career in architectural design. His host mother at the time encouraged him to pursue fashion instead, because she saw his passion for clothes and style in action each day. This decision took him to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he fell in love with knitwear. “For four years straight, I just knit,” he tells JoySauce.

Now, with a degree in knitwear, Ngaongam has decided to dedicate his career to this unique process of creating clothing and the space it holds in the fashion industry. To Ngaongam, it’s all about the personal touch. “When you think of fashion, people don’t usually think of knitwear. They think of sewing, where you can go to the store, buy fabric, and sew it into a garment,” he explains. “But with knitwear, you can only start with yarn. You first have to make the actual fabric, and then make it into the garment. It has a personal connection to the final product from the very beginning.”

BULAN's fall 2024 collection is chunky and layered, with drapes and braids.

Anna Dave

While it’s not always on the tops of trendy seasonal lists, knitwear is a free-flowing way to create, which is a part of the process Ngaongam finds especially important. “Since you’re making the fabric yourself, you can make whatever you want. You can add different patterns, colors, and textures into the base of your garment, and there are no limits to what you can do with your yarn. The possibilities are endless,” he explains.

BULAN, which was named after the childhood nickname given to Ngaongam by his mother, features knitwear that is not afraid of bold colors, striped patterns, and experimental silhouettes. Each piece in the brand’s fall 2024 collection is chunky and layered, with drapes and braids of fabric adorning the models wearing them. The hues are bright, with deep browns and rusty oranges contrasting with fiery pinks and vivid blues, while the twisted shapes of each style hold the pieces together as a part of the same story. When viewed side by side, the garments begin to resemble colorful, abstract sculptural pieces found in a modern art museum.

Ngaongam's color choices in his work are intentionally push back against the standards of masculinity in fashion.

Anna Dave

For Ngaongam, the color choices in his work are an intentional way of pushing back against the standards of masculinity in fashion. “My family in Thailand is conservative, and I always had to look a certain way growing up,” he says. “Black, white, and gray were the masculine colors that I was always told to wear, and the only ones I thought I could work with.” This changed in his final year of college, when a mentor challenged him to create a collection that left this comfort zone. “She told me to do something that I’ve always wanted to do, but never got a chance to. So I thought, let’s do colors.” From this moment on, colors became key in how he expressed himself not only in his personal style, but in his knitwear creations. “I’m not a big talker, so I like that using colors gives me a way to tell the world how I’m feeling without having to say a word. You can feel me just by looking at my clothes,” he shares.

“I want to push the boundaries of how far I can take knitwear. I want to create sculptures out of yarn. It doesn’t have to be a boring grandma sweater or a basic scarf. I want to show the world what knitwear can be.”

The innovative silhouettes and shapes in BULAN collections showcase Ngaongam’s initial interest in architecture, as well as his desire to do more than just make clothing. “I want to push the boundaries of how far I can take knitwear. I want to create sculptures out of yarn,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be a boring grandma sweater or a basic scarf. I want to show the world what knitwear can be.”

Ngaongam’s vision is already resonating with fashion and art lovers across the globe, as his collections have appeared in Hypebeast, Marie Claire Italia, GQ Thailand, L’Officiel, and Vogue Thailand. BULAN also showed a collection at New York Fashion Week’s Men’s Day in February. As his knitwear continues to make waves in an industry that can be less welcoming to this specific craft compared to other forms of textile arts, the designer isn’t focused on chasing collection cycles or producing more runway shows.

BULAN features knitwear that is not afraid of bold colors, striped patterns, and experimental silhouettes.

Anna Dave

Instead, Ngaongam plans to remain focused on his craft, and has his eyes set on expanding the scope of his brand as he hopes to venture into the worlds of fine art and interior design. Currently, he is working on a textile partnership with pioneering modern furniture brand Herman Miller, paving the way for knitwear pieces to find their way into living rooms, in addition to closets. And while the progress towards this new direction may be slow-moving, for Ngaongam, the knit, rather than the brand presenting it or the person wearing it, will always speak for itself.