Nothing was planned or intentional with United Bamboo (1999 - 2012). When the infamous NYC meta-brand and collective Bernadette Corporation turned towards art-making, Thuy Pham broke free with a group of interns—Miho Aoki and Siri Kuptamethee—and started producing real clothes for an emergent downtown hipster class. United Bamboo, like BC before it, teased at various Asian-isms, but forever obfuscated a stable identity. It was, ironically, a Japanese infatuation with NYC millennial style that catapulted United Bamboo into the global mass market by way of a foreign investor, culminating in a custom-built flagship store in Tokyo’s Nakameguro area designed by Vito Acconci during his short stint in architecture. Read the full oral history of United Bamboo in Viscose 03: “ASIAS” – link in bio for purchasing link.