Thai Textiles

Ten designers from Asia have been invited to participate in a special project, “Thai Textile: Asean Design”, organized by the Department of Cultural Promotion under the Ministry of Culture to celebrate and honor Her Majesty the Queen on the occasion of her 80th birthday.  The idea is to promote the beauty and identity of Thai indigenous textiles on the world stage and engages nine creative minds from “Asean” member countries to showcase their design vision through Thai fabrics.

Each designer was given approximately one month and 15 yards of textiles, divided into five 3 yard pieces selected for them by the recent winner of the coveted Mango Fashion Awards, Wisharawish Akarasontisook and the Cultural Promotion Department.

After the one month period, the designers brought back the fabrics to Thailand for a special fashion show on August the 15th at the Royal Paragon Hall.

The result was breathtaking, not in terms of beauty but rather about how the familiar Thai textiles could be viewed, perceived, and reinterpreted from perspectives of ''outsiders'', whose creative inputs and experiences could serve as a foundation for Thai textile manufacturers and fashion designers in developing the products, as well as designs from the fabrics.

With the love and admiration they have for the rich colors and exquisite designs of Thai textiles, and their knack and experiences in handling materials, all the designers have transported our familiarity into a new realm. They have reflected on the Thai textiles through their own universal language  that is fashion, and crafted collections that are modern, individual and ground-breaking, the latter as to how the people of Thailand think their fabrics can be used.

original article appeared on August 28th in the Bangkok Post and online publication

http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/fashion/309823/new-perspectives