It feels as if only yesterday that I, sur les champs, Parisian for “on the avenue des Champs-Elysées”, first met Titipon “Titi” Chitsantisook one morning, early afternoon for mere mortals to be exact, when it’s already been two years. Titi to me was, whether he considers himself to be or not, a good example of a young hipster’s charm; very contemporary, very fresh, quiet but not silent, shy but confident, and most importantly he possess a great sense of humour.

New as he was in Paris, at the time we met he was still attending a French course at the Sorbonne which, to his great advantage, gave him quite a lot of time to work on his collection and at the same time explore and immerse himself in the city thriving with inspiration. Almost two years passed. Circumstances change. Instead of gossips over a cup of hot chocolate or a glass of Kir Royal in a street side café or a pique nique on the quays of the Seine river, we now converse on facebook and msn messenger.

An ex-assistant designer at GREY by Greyhound himself and winner and participant of so many fashion design awards in Asia; “First Selection” at PID International Fashion Design in Korea, the “Grand Prix” at Fashion Design Contest Komatsu, Japan, a representative of Thai designers in Singapore, etc, etc, it’s no surprise at all when I get his vivacious e-mail telling me that he’s been chosen to showcase his collection at the festival Hyeres, one of the most famous place for new creative talents in France.

Mademoiselle: Tell us about your Festival Hyères experience…

Titi: Like a dream, I’d waited for the whole year until the day they were open for application, then until they announced selected final 10 designers, during the festival it’s a good chance to share ideas with other young people of the same generation. Also it’s a great opportunity to meet with fashion professionals (Ricardo Tisci from Givenchy, Haider Ackhermann, etc).

Mademoiselle: What’s your inspiration for this collection?

Titi: from music of Philip Glass’ avant-garde opera “Einstein on the Beach” with lots of repetition on rhythm. I translate that into design technique with basic elements; dot, line, and plane when dots stay together they create a line, when lines stay together they become a plane. I also focus on textile with simple silhouette.

Mademoiselle: What are your plans for the near future?

Titi: I was accepted for master’s degree at IFM (Institut Français de la Mode) which will start in September. Or maybe I’ll work (a lot of meeting during this month). I didn’t make decision yet, now I’m designing my next collection for s/s 2009.

Mademoiselle: Are you the first Thai person to participate in the festival?

Titi: yes What music are you listening to?

Titi: Bright Eyes , Philip Glass , Hot Chip

Mademoiselle: Are you collecting something?

Titi: No

Mademoiselle: Who are your favourite designers? Please name one who is alive and another who is not…

Titi: Jun Takahashi (Undercover) for the idea and Madeleine Vionet as the master of construct.

Mademoiselle: Being from Bangkok, how does Bangkok affect your work?

Titi: Bangkok is based on trends. That makes me avoid trends. Bangkok never sleeps, always in movement which gives me new ideas every day. In Bangkok, everything (nearly) could happen.

Mademoiselle: Your opinion on Bangkok fashion industry/scene…

Titi: Like a beautiful young girl, sometimes she wears a lot of make up, sometimes she’s so rough. She just needs a good direction and she will be a gorgeous woman one day.

It gives me joy to know that Titi now persues the path he’d always been destined for as much as to know that my beloved country is beginning to be known for one of the most significant hallmarks of a great nation; creativity.

Share This

 My article as published in the Bangkok Post supplementary Guru Magazine on May 23rd, 2008

“If we refrain from questioning the status quo, it is… primarily because we associate what is popular with what is right.”

Alain de Botton

 

One scorching afternoon at Siam Paragon, I was listening to Amy Winehouse on IPod when I spot what seemed to be an endless stream of people sporting Crocs shoes parading in the mall. Suddenly Amy sings “No! No! No!” well that’s about half the lyrics anyway but I couldn’t have agreed with her more!

It could be about taste and aesthetic values of people there but maybe it’s just because of the cold weather in Paris that the concept of real people wearing Crocs shoes has entered my life only after I came back to Bangkok last year as a culture shock. Boy, am I still horrified…  

I must thank the designers at Crocs though for giving me a chance to completely understand why those boys had wanted to gay bash me back in my adolescent years. To them and their perceived masculinity, my personal glamour was a threat. Only this time, looking at Crocs wearers, what terrorises me is not glamour or fabulousness. It’s repulsiveness. I want to Crocs bash them, strangle them, squeeze the lives out of them or simply let someone do it for moi “Off with their legs!” Oops forgive my violence. Please blame that on too much killing in the media…

In fact, the original concept of the shoes is the footwear perfect for boating. That sounds reasonable given that it’s very lightweight and made of water resistant material. But why wear them in the city? I know Bangkok used to be the Venice of the East but that’s the past and we don’t do much boating here anymore.

I would be very appropriate in wearing Speedos at swimming pool but get caught by the police sporting the same swimming trunks on the streets for profanity. Shouldn’t the same rule apply for wearing Crocs too if they create those shoes for boating?

I will write a letter to tigers and bears, asking them to please sink their teeth into my skinny legs whenever I wear my YSL leather patent stilettos to hiking or even to the Kao Din zoo. 

 

Well, that’s just my self-centered opinion but I say I’m not alone (not that I care anyway).

The immense popularity of Crocs shoes has created reactions in two extremes; those who adore the shoes and those who despise them, hardly something in between. However, from my exhaustive interviews and research, even those who really adore the shoes would say something out uncertain of their appearance like “I know they’re ugly but they’re very comfortable”… and I hear none of the theatrically expressed articulations like “Never have I seen such a Colossus of Beauty” nor do I find a more subtle praise like “stupendous, darling, I say they are simply marvellous”…

On the other hand, the haters respond to Crocs in much stronger and more aggressive statements from which I will spare you the inappropriate details. Apart from reactive complaints on aesthetic values from various bloggers here and there, someone even goes so far as to set up a blog devoted to such aversion called ihatecrocsblog.blogspot.com. Everyday that someone never ceases to bitch about how grotesque the shoes are and, for his audience, he silk-screens t-shirts embellished with sassy slogans like “Crocs: They are to your eyes like second hand smoker is to your lungs”

Moreover, wikipedia tells me that the shoes have been a target of satire. On Real Time with Bill Maher, the host, over a picture of Crocs, asks for a “New rule: stop wearing plastic shoes”.

A film director even graces Crocs with an opportunity to appear in his movie that portrays “a future in which culture greatly degrades over time and the general public is made up of morons, some characters, including the main character, can be seen wearing shoes resembling Crocs”.

What do we learn from movies? The devil might wear Prada but the morons wear… The blank is for you to fill.

 

It saddens me to say that all the trashing and bashing have done little to nothing to reduce the popularity of the shoes. Accustomed to wearing and seeing other people in those shoes, Crocs wearers are far from being so insecure as to be humiliated by such criticisms and get rid of their footwear of choice. People are still gliding around in Crocs and the sales are still immense until, yes, until, bad news start pouring in and this time the complaints are non-judgmental and even very logical.

Reports say that despite being comfortable and absolutely hideous, Crocs shoes are prone to accidents when paired with escalators. The accidents come in a form of bloody affairs to toenails almost coming off when the shoes get stuck between the stairs and walls of escalators.

In Singapore, “a 2-year-old girl wearing rubber clogs — it’s unclear what brand — had her big toe ripped off in an escalator accident in November 2006, according to local news reports.” Rubber clogs—it’s unclear what brand, well I say that’s rather priceless. There are even fake Crocs shoes here in The City of Angels.

At the Atlanta airport last year, a 3-year-old boy wearing Crocs suffered “a deep gash across the top of his toes”, etc, etc.

The Washington Metro said last year it “had noticed an increase in the number of shoes getting stuck in escalators. No serious injuries have been reported. The passenger rail system has posted ads warning about soft-soled shoes on its moving stairways”.

Now I understand the then laugh-out-loud-ridiculous advert, “Why Crocs of all things?” I asked myself, posted around our BTS system in Bangkok.

 

They say the  Crocs’ stock price is plummeting so I don’t know about 2008 but reports say that almost four million Crocs shoes were sold in Japan alone last year. Oh, the succession and repetition of massed humanity!

I don’t care about what you wear at home but I would like you to think twice before wearing Crocs shoes in the City. Please, ladies and gentlemen, do it for the poor. Do it for the whales. Do it for the bears…And most importantly, do it for your toes!

Share This

My article as published in the Bangkok Post supplementary Guru Magazine on May 16th, 2008

 

One quiet Saturday evening, not long after my early arrival at a boutique-come-meeting place Meticulous, two familiar figures enter the place. Paris’ Jeunes Créateurs Gaspard Yurkievich and his co-president and co-designer Guido Voss have accepted to sit for an interview with moi.

After a friendly bonjour-ing and enchanté-ing we move upstairs where I persuade them to tell us about their latest autumn-winter 08/09 collection “The Beautiful Fall”. Gaspard says he takes inspiration from the book of the same title written by Alicia Drake in 2006. “It talks about the Paris fashion scene in the 70’s; its energy, its parties, its people, and its scandals.”

In fact this smart book is quite scandalous itself for, with blazing information collected through interviews with les fashion people present at the time; Loulou de la Falaise, Antonio Lopez, Paloma Picasso to name but a few, it exposes the illustrious lives of and juicy rivalry between two iconic fashion designers of the era Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld who spent decades competing each other for headlines and personal glory. 

Looking at their collection, Gaspard and Guido transcend onto all their creations the spirit of the 70’s where the popularity of Haute Couture was plummeting and Ready-to-wear rising. Yet the sophistication and refinement of Haute Couture remain intact in the Young Creators’ designs only that they give a fresh new life to it by injecting contemporary energy so no nostalgia to be seen, just the now. The result is Parisian elegance of sharp and precise colour pairings; violet, black, and yellow, expressed through noble materials like silk organza, satin, and by Chambre Syndicale de la Fourrure’s request (Yes, they have a Chambre Syndicale of Furs in Paris- How chic is that?) rabbit and fox furs. Very feminine, fierce and flattering but never fluffy, their collection is absolutely fabulous.

 

A trouser suit for women, something once synonymous with Yves Saint Laurent, as seen here, suddenly screams Gaspard Yurkievich once he and Guido incorporate larger-than-life zippers onto the jacket’s pockets and sleeves. “They (the zippers) signify paintbrushes,” recounts Gaspard “reflecting the art scene which was inseparable with the fashion one in the 70’s as portrayed in the Beautiful Fall”.

Their men’s collection, not exactly inspired by the book, is so hip it hurts. A sweater that is draped and sculpted at the neck to imitate how young hipsters wear their scarves is sure to be next season’s IT piece. Or the top that is hybrid between sportswear and formal wear that, paired with a dinner jacket, from a distance one would mistake it for a tuxedo with cummerbund when in reality it’s just a genius way of formalizing the jogging jacket.

As fresh as their designs may be, they even emphasise their contemporary attitude on their website www.gaspardyurkievich.com where they open their E-Boutique and even keep their blog. “People just go on internet and choose what they want there instead of watching passively something on the TV.” says Guido.   

“It’s also a great way to intereact with our clients.” agrees Gaspard “We only have one flagship store on rue Charlot in Paris making it quite hard for them to reach us if they live elsewhere but in Asia we have corners in Korea and Japan.” In order to “interact” more with their fans, they also have a myspace page as well as the 2008 phenomenon facebook. Very contemporary indeed.

Like most luxury French brands, Gaspard Yurkievich’s main clients are Japanese but there are rooms for expansion everywhere. “We’d love to have a branch here in Bangkok too!” smiles Gaspard sipping his water. Mais oui, Gaspard, I for one am DYING for that, seriously.

I ask him what he would do is he wasn’t a designer. “If I had enough money or had got enough of fashion, I would be a producer in a sense that I promote and support people with talents.” Whereas Guido who a long time ago wanted to become an actor now opts for opening a small hotel like the one in the northern part of Paris called L’Hotel Particulier de Monmartre where “Each room is designed by different designer” he adds. “And we want to have a place where we could exchange ideas and what we work on.”

It’s 8 pm now. The two are leaving for dinner and when asked, Guido admits “This is not to charm you or anything but my favourite cuisine is Thai, Japanese, and Italian.” While Gaspard’s preference is a tad bit more patriotic. “I like French Gastronomy” That reminds me of his collaboration with the Café de la Paix and the Grand Hotel InterContinental in 2007. He designed a chocolate-based pastry. “They interviewed me about the tastes and ingredients I liked in a dessert and I sent them my drawing. It was a great experience and I got to taste the one that Paco Rabane designed too, without having to order the whole meal like other people.”

In fact, being a designer, he doesn’t have to do so many things that people have to. Talking about one of his favourite designers Comme des Garçons designing for H&M this autumn, he muses “I’m not saying that it’s a good or bad thing but it’s definitely a clever thing for her (Rei Kawakubo) to do.”

And would you buy it? I inquire. “If it’s good, why not?” answers Gaspard giggling “But I’ve never bought anything from H&M because I’m lucky enough to be in a position where I could get really great clothes at the price of H&M but would otherwise cost a fortune.”

No, you are not lucky, Gaspard. You are talented.

Share This

My Article as published in The Bangkok Post supplementary Guru Magazine on May 9th, 2008.

I highly recommend that everyone read Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Yes, fashionistas do read! Anyway, I remember buying its original version on the first day I arrived in Paris back in mid-2006, expecting it to perfect my French and planning to finish the whole collection before I complete my masters at a fashion school. Slightly short of two years later, the diploma already in hand, I’m still at its fourth volume Sodom and Gomorrah of its translated edition… Yes, I must admit that, drowned in an unfathomable sea of his lengthy, snake-like, and convoluted, albeit very well-constructed, sentences, my Satit School’s French had given up on the French version and opted instead for the English one.

 

This week, something very Proustian had happened to me. My stylist friend Varangkana “Pim” Ruengvisesh just got back from her holidays in Paris. Knowing me better than I know myself she brought me French macarons as a souvenir. Ever so greedy, I start unwrapping at once and the delicate smell of pistaschio hit me. I’m suddenly reminded of how much I miss Paris. Then an avalanche of memories snowballs on me and for a short moment I’m lost for words, like I was transported to another world. To Pim I might have looked very bizarre sporting a smile with no reason but in my mind I was back in Paris.

 

“Voluntary memory, the memory of the intellect and the eyes, [gives] us only imprecise facsimiles of the past which no more resemble it than pictures by bad painters resemble the spring… So we don’t believe that life is beautiful because we don’t recall it, but if we get a whiff of a long-forgotten smell we are suddenly intoxicated, and similarly we think we no longer love the dead, because we don’t remember them, but if by chance we come across an old glove we burst into tears.”

 

How true of Proust to have said that. I started to discover that only after almost a year, part of my Paris memory begins to disappear deep inside my over-worked brains. And like the narrator of In Search of Lost Time, looking back is only to find vague memories so blurred that I want to hit myself sometimes. However every time a friend from over there pay a visit, some of those memories would come back to me once again in full glory driving me so desperate to move back.

 

The Pierre Hermé macarons don’t remind me of the shop itself but strangely they bring back the memory of thousand other things not directly connected to the French pastry. And they do so in a way that without the scent and taste of the macarons, I wouldn’t be able to summon my memory up in this order. It was that moment that I, like Proust said, almost burst into tears.

 

My usual habit as a Parisian is to have afternoon tea with my friends at Ladurée. And what we always do, either before or after tea, is to shop- well, more often than not- window shop around the areas. If we visit the rue Royale branch, we browse around the nearby rue Faubourg Saint Honoré, and if we visit the Champs Elysees branch then we strut along the adjacent avenue Montaigne.

 

The Macarons brought back all the great memories I’d gathered everytime I come to this narrow yet glamourous rue Faubourg Saint Honoré. I’ve spotted all the Gliterati there, from Paul Smith to Patricia Field, to Alber Elbaz, to Karl Lagerfeld, etc. 

 

I also found what was to become my favourite pair of shoes at Sergio Rossi. Les Favorites come in the form of pink leather patent oxford lace-ups so fabulous that I wanted to buy them in all colours (one in ivory and the other in plum) but my daddy-o’s connected credit card wouldn’t quite agree so I bought only the pink ones. Now I regret it. I should have bought ALL and faced my father’s wrath later.

 

Anyway, the eager-beaver part in me wore them at once and upon gliding out of the boutique I got attacked by someone from a NYC-based trend agency called something like “Images That Inspire”, asking if she could take my photos! And it wasn’t even my most stylish day! Then Madonna’s Vogue started playing in my head. Boy, was I proud!

 

So, did I allow her to spread the portraits of my obese and fugly self?

 

What do you think? I’m the embodiment of Shameless Self-Promotion.

 

However, of all the great memories related to the rue Faubourg Saint Honoré, the Macarons lead me to the one that touches me most. It’s when I spot the Lanvin boutique and begin to reflect on its window display the same way that Proust explored human’s false expectations.  

“True beauty is indeed the one thing incapable of answering the expectations of the over-romantic imagination…What disappointments has it not caused since it first appeared to the mass of mankind!”

 

Whoever is responsible for the window displays deserves a Nobel Prize. It showcases quite a lot of mannequins, male, sporting refined suits Lanvin Homme is known for. However, the heads of these mannequins are animals; lion, donkey, chicken, etc (pictured above with me in Viktor& Rolf for H&M wedding dress). It so strikes me as very creative and funny but at the same time it enlightens me about the fact that there is no such thing as a Prince Charming.

 

Like most girls of my generation, I’m brought up with fairy tales so heavily commercialised by Walt Disney. Locally, we’re still unlucky enough to have the entertainment industry that more than emphasises the importance of Classic Beauty. I discover recently that on TV Characters still wear make-up to bed or as they are held captured, hair perfectly and professionally coiffed… It affects the way we live in every aspect imaginable. Consciously or not, we all grow up expecting to find a Prince Charming to lead us to a Happily Ever After ending and in order to attract one; we try to be as “beautiful” as possible. I realize how superficial we are as well as unrealistic…

 

This idea of “false” perfection runs deep in our vein. Through time and life-long cultivation we might even become fiercer and stronger or more independent but deep inside we’re still waiting to be rescued… most appallingly by a Knight on White Horse who, we’d soon figure, might not even exist.

 

Looking back in our lives, how many people have we dismissed from the first moment we spot the faintest sign of their weaknesses? How swiftly do we overlook a fat man’s chivalric quality or a great sense of humour we actually long for? How appallingly do we snub a suitor who fails to meet just one of our 1001 criteria only to fall for someone who is extremely great looking but in the end treat you like a piece of merde… And strangely enough, most of the time we put up to that in hoping that one day you will have a Happily Ever After… We’re over-romantic.

 

On my last bite of the glorious macaron I think of the meaningful animal faces of the Lanvin’s mannequins. Fashion industry is one of the most illusional industries in the world and when it confirms that there is no such thing as perfection. I have to get used to it by opening my eyes and most importantly my mind for beauty is something to be discovered rather than passively encountered.

Share This

 

Some people say that fashion magazines lure you into thinking you’re fat… Much as I would like to deny, I admit that the statement also rings true to one extent.

It has become my lifelong habit to be on diet. Every time I look in my mirror I think I’m fat and that I need to lose weight…

In fact, I really do need to lose weight.

Anyway, today I have an opportunity tobe a vendeuse at my mother’s little pastry shop in a city called Chiang Mai. This opportunity enables me to both to take a closer look at my family business and to observe people, converse with them, and perhaps charm them.

It should be added here that since my arrival in Chiang Mai two weeks ago I’ve put on weight and never felt so FAT in my life…

One of the customers said to my helping friend, upon looking at my tiny legs beneath my high-waisted trousers, “Why do we clients keep getting fatter and fatter and the sellers slimmer and slimmer, look at her(that’s me) her body has nothing…”

Should I look into this human mirror and see my reflection through her eyes or should I just keep reading fashion magazine and feel fat all the time?

Share This

My article as published in the Bangkok Post supplementary Guru Magazine on May 2nd, 2008

When I saw H&M’s announcement about its fall 2008 collection’s collaboration between Comme des Garçons and the brand I DIED! Many of you might’ve already known this Swedish elskling of a high street brand but for the sake of those who aren’t familiar with it yet, H&M offers deliriously trendy garments in mostly acceptable quality at a very affordable price. Amongst the teens in Europe it’s all the rage now.

Before glorifying this brand I have this Unusual Set of Logics saying that H&M is much more expensive than Hermès. I know I know how can a 10 euros crap be pricier than a 10,000+ euros Kelly Bag?

To value something at its price tag is one of the shallowest things imaginable even for shallow people like the fashion ones. Looking at the Kelly bag with ruthless objectivity, I’d like you to leave psychological factors like the pride and prestige of possessing a Kelly Bag out, its materials, durability, quality, beauty, and timeless design are what we must also consider. Like my favourite yet politically incorrect (duh!) mink coat, a Kelly bag can last many lifetimes. Although I can’t afford it yet I wouldn’t deny such refined workmanship to the point of cynically dismissing it as “expensive”. It’s just, in my affectedly posh British accent, “veddy, veddy” pricey.

On the other hand, buying a 30 euros bag from H&M and it could be torn in your hand in a month and believe me you don’t have to be the most adventurous of all Thailand to achieve the result. And that is not counting the fact that through out its short and bad quality life the bag doesn’t even make you look better! And you think you get a good deal? That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call expensive with a big E.

I know trends come and go as quickly as a blink of an eye and fashion is ephemeral in its nature but doesn’t breaking in your hand make it a little bit too ephemeral?So with all my unusual logics and personal preciousness I hadn’t paid the slightest attention to H&M at all until its uber-innovative move in 2005. Yves Saint Laurent might have been one of the first to pioneer, in the 60’s, the path of ready-to-wear (pret-a-porter) as opposed to the only existing form of fashion at the time called Haute Couture. Or all the designers might have given birth to their second or third line like Chloé has See by Chloé, Paul & Joe has Paul & Joe Sister, or Marc Jacobs has Marc by Marc Jacobs, etc to reach out for more clients but NEVER have I seen a more democratising move in the fashion industry. In 2004 H&M announced its collaboration between the brand and its guest designer Karl Lagerfeld! I DIED… Apparently I die a lot these days.

(By the way, given the rate of French words incorporated in each sentence as it is I think after a year of reading my article you will all be able to speak French …)

See by Chloé might be ten times less pricey than the mama Chloé but that still costs a fortune – say 300-500 euros for a summer dress instead of 3,000? Karl Lagerfeld designs for Fendi, his own brand Lagerfeld Gallery, and to top it all he designs for Chanel… and all of a sudden he accepts to design a collection for a cheap brand like H&M. People went hysterical!How do you justify a 100,000 euros made-to-measure tweed jacket designed by you when an average Jane could also get one of your creations for 50? Even yours truly doesn’t know the answer but she’d like to invite you to watch its award-winning TV commercial on Youtube.com. Please kindly log on and search for Karl Lagerfeld and H&M. You will understand the situation more perfectly! The results couldn’t have been more phenomenal with people lining blocks after blocks from the stores. When all the pieces designed by Lagerfeld were immediately sold out I was still deciding whether to step into the H&M stores where, before all these things happening, I wouldn’t want to be seen dead in.

The following year the torch was handed to Stella McCartney with the same, if not greater, success and then to Viktor & Rolf… This time (fall-winter 06/07) I bought their wedding dress to wear in my themed birthday party in

Paris. The sales assistants were all jaw dropped speechless when I paid. The guy at the fitting room still expected me to return it to him after trying it for fun there! Imagine someone buying a wedding dress from H&M! It’s total madness! But we all loved it! Do you want to see what it’s like? Well, if I get enough e-mails from you coaxing me to show the dress I might be showing it in my article one of these days! It could be an eyesore though.

Then they had stars like Kylie Minoque and Madonna and then Roberto Cavalli in 2007. Now in 2008 we have at H&M….ta daaaaaaaa… Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo! J’adore. J’adore. If you want to know who put a stop to the excess of the 80’s it’s this woman. If you want to know who brings more depth to fashion and make it terribly philosophical it’s this woman. If you want to know who my favourite Japanese designer is it’s this WOMAN.  

However, Comme des Garçons for H&M is such a paradox in itself considering how far from commonly practical her (un)usual designs are to pair with a mass market fast selling distributor like H&M… Even Kawakubo admits it herself at a press conference “I have always been interested in the balance between creation and business. It is a dilemma, although for me creation has always been the first priority. It is a fascinating challenge to work with H&M since it is a chance to take the dilemma to its extreme, and try to solve it”Someone is not afraid of huge challenges!It’s a pity that we don’t have an H&M store here in Viva la

Third World because I want the whole collection! Never mind. A distributor of the same rank and more or less same concept is opening in

Bangkok. It’s called Top Shop.

  “But it’s cheap!” spat a concerned voice, not being able to withstand the idea of Karl Lagerfeld designing for a low price brand like H&M“What a depressing word…” sighed Lagerfeld “It’s all about taste. If you’re cheap, nothing helps.”

Share This

I had a little chat with my old friend in Paris the other night and strangely our conversation went for a moment to the 80’s movie La Boum (Sophie Marceau- wasn’t she cute?)… and then he started singing the movie’s soundtrack- I mean typing lyrics hahaha.

Remembering only its melody, I looked it up on youtube so that I could *sing* along with him- in fact he only typed the hook line of the song and then stopped. Whatevs. It turns out that by watching the music video, I’m attacked gravely by nostalgia…

You know, much as I am a devout Francophile, I didn’t spend my teenage years in Paris nor was I born soon enough to have seen La Boum as a teenager… well I did saw the movie when I was a teenager but that was in the 90’s even early 2000’s… While the movie was released in 1980…before I was born…I’m not in the same generation as the La Boum people.

Yet, somehow the music takes hold on me and I couldn’t stop having teary eyes all night…

I feel like buying a plane ticket (one-way hahah) and fly to Paris NOW.

Dreams…are my reality, the only kind of realllll fantasieeee….

Share This

My article as published in the Bangkok Post’s Supplementary Guru Magazine on April 25th, 2008 

“The higher your hair the closer you are to god.”

I don’t quite remember the name of the person who uttered the phrase but she did so back in the excessive decade of 1980’s. Although I couldn’t care less about being close to god except the sex one, I’ve recently developed an envie in an exaggeratingly puffed up bouffant of great audacity. Yes, you’re right- I want to have my hair styled a-la-Amy Winehouse, my muse of the minute.

Over a year ago, everywhere I went I heard the name Amy Winehouse in most of the conversations but I never paid any attention. I didn’t even care what the woman looked like let alone her music and private life. Then they started showing me her tabloid pictures or a link to gossip weblogs exposing her scandalous life. At first glance it didn’t entice me to know more about the woman. To be frank with you, when I saw her face my feelings towards her weren’t exactly on the positive side. With that Jewish nose so big in the middle of her face like that of a witch, she is not even beautiful, nor does her clothing style carry something out of ordinary. In fact, she dresses like a prostitute but glorious glamour! Is that hair for real?

Everyone who knows me personally knows well that I have a tendency to tease my hair up into a bouffant whenever possible. Part of that I take the inspiration from Audrey Hepburn circa Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the unfortunate queen Marie-Antoinette’s notorious pouf. Maybe the reason behind the adoration is because I have the same height as Napoleon the First and as he stands on the top of the Column of Vendôme to make up for his lack of height the bouffant hair gives me a couple of centimetres I so long for.

Her hair must be so surreal that it didn’t take long for all the glossies to come up with models sporting Winehouse’s Hair in their fashion spreads following by the same hair in numerous shows during the recent fashion week in New York and

Paris. Even Karl Lagerfeld makes her his muse. In the fashion industry, Amy is all the rage now.

Career-wise she wins more awards for the past two years than anyone would have dreamed of but take a look at her private life and you’ll find it a real mess. Her husband is in jail while she admits to having problems with self-destructive behaviour, depression and eating disorders. That doesn’t count the substance abuses both on and off stage that creates rumours that she along with Pete Doherty alone could keep the Columbian economy going…

Such immoral behaviours may have put some people off but at the same time they create a tighter bond between her and her real fans. Same phenomenon applies to other rock stars and a new generation of London-based artists whose squat parties are the talk of the town.

Why do we love people with aggressive and destructive behaviours so much?

Some parts of the world may still try to promote the image of Super Man and Ms. Prim and Proper but people of today no longer search for such idols to look up to. We have enough people preaching morals to us already since our birth. We live our lives with what we’re told to do and not to do.

Especially these days, the concept of freedom is more and more limited by the minute. Smoking is so over-killed. I can’t smoke my Sobrani Black Russian anywhere without getting the you-are-a-walking-cancer-don’t-come-near-me look. Then someone tells me to wear that colour and then another and recently they told me not to wear camouflage… Not that I have a wardrobe full of camouflage clothes but the thought of prohibition for garment as a tool to categorise people is so middle-ages; peasants can’t wear silk and whatnot. Then I can’t buy alcohol from Seven Eleven after midnight which is exactly when the party starts. Will they one day force me not to eat after sunset too? I’m unhappy here but will I defy such laws? I dare not!

Deep down inside we pine for something more rebellious or at least adventurous and when we don’t have the guts to do those things ourselves we love to see other people do it for us and we reward them with thunderous applause and sympathy.

People of ancient Rome loved to watch people fight and kill each other in the Coliseum. We still have boxing today as a less violent descendent or for a little bit more staged and phony affair some people just love wrestling…

What Amy Winehouse does is more or less the same. People love her and still go to her concerts and have a good laugh at her yelling at them, drunk and high on the stage, singing like a sheep. The questions that come to mind is will we really still adore her and buy her albums although she represents all the illegal things imaginable? OR, do we neglect her talents just because she is a drug addict.

Judging from her commercial success I guess the answers are yes to the former and no to the latter. Along with her talents, we adore her originality, her guts, and her flaws. Her vulnerability makes her very real, very tangible, very human and easier for the rest of us to relate to and root for.

Her Beehive is so big in Europe right now and I wonder if Thai girls would adopt it too but adopting it or not Amy’s candy floss of a hair never escapes me nor does her Grammy winning song-

 “They tried to make me go to rehab, I said No! No! No!” 

Share This

My article as published in the Bangkok Post’s Supplementary Guru Magazine on April 18th, 2008

I read something about the Female US Presidential Candidate’s attitude a few weeks ago. To aid her in her campaign, American Vogue expressed its desire to feature Ms. Sexist on its cover. Ms. Sexist refused the offer because she feared that appearing in a dress in a fashion magazine would convey a negative image to her efficiency as a Leader deeming her too fluffy and feminine to rule.The question that comes to mind is “In the age of post-feminism, do women still have to wear men’s clothes to assume positions that have long discriminatingly been assigned to men?”Can women not rule as themselves other than as women who are trying to prove themselves as strong as men?

By this reaction of Ms. Sexist towards wearing a dress I say she doesn’t deserve the presidency. Why? Because even at this crucial moment of the election she still doesn’t believe in herself as a woman. To be exact, she doesn’t believe that a WOMAN can win a presidency. Whatever it is in the mind of Ms. Sexist turns me down appallingly.

Can one be a fashionista and at the same time substantial? 

We are unfortunate enough to live in a world that labels people and exhaustively uses symbolism to incite human’s preconceptions of things. The sadder part is that we only define them as good or bad, strong or weak, black or white, etc. Women- weak, Alcohol and cigarette-bad, party girls-bad, night owls-bad, sex- bad, homos-bad, bisexuals- bad, Jakthong-the worst, whereas children who stay home instead of hanging out with friends-good, geek children-good, men- good, virginity-very very good, and the list goes on. But have we ever looked deeper to discover how complex a person can be? Concerning how Ms. Sexist thinks, it’s true that when you’re interested in fashion you’re immediately considered superficial and in many cases judged as a bimbo.

Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City was snubbed by her boyfriend Alexandre Petrovsky’s artist friends the minute she told them that she contributed for Vogue magazine. A little over two centuries before her, the French guillotined Marie-Antoinette for her queenly extravagance and her passion for garments. Maybe they are just blondes… I’m kidding.A Brunette like moi also fall victim to such prejudice. I don’t know who to blame but I’m always accused by many especially my relatives, close and distant alike, of frivolity.

I don’t know what’s wrong with frivolity but they condemn me with it even though they don’t know what I read, write, smoke, or eat as much as they don’t know where I hang out, who I associate with, or what my political views are. To be exact, they don’t know me at all. For them I just happen to exude frivolity-whatever it implies to them- whenever they sense my existence or the slightest trace of it. Thank god that through time I’ve developed a strong sense of insouciance that comes with my Siamese smile. However, having to bear with these craps sometimes I wonder why I came back to

Thailand at all…

Actually, the reason I had to come back was classic. I ran out of visa and I didn’t want to become illegal albeit the most glamourous “Robin Hood” of all

France, not with that Sarkozy guy on the leash. Ummmm, on seconde thought, I don’t mind his blond sons though, ha-ha. I know for you the sight might be a little difficult to bear but imagine me as the First “Gay-dy” or “Gentle-gay” of the République Française being arch and lady-like in my best Balenciaga, lounging on a gilded antique Louis XVI fauteuil in the Elysée Palace enacting leftist laws while nibbling on pastel-coloured macarons from Ladurée with a cup of thé from Mariage Frères side by side with my ex-model of a stepmother-in-law. Too Sophia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette for words! Good-bye

Thailand and HELLO magazine!

Forgive moi, usually I’m never one for a Marriage of Convenience or any kinds of marriages but sometimes the bimbo part of me just longs for a fairy tale of my own… Ha! Too much Disney. The next time I stray; just pinch me on the arm ok? It takes hundreds of “heretics” and centuries of studies for them to learn that the rain is not an act of gods. It takes longer than that to make the majority of people believe so. Likewise, many are still ignorant of fashion deeming it superficial to care where in reality the substantial part of fashion lies very closely with us and can affect our everyday life.We do owe a lot to people in fashion from designers, to seamstresses, to fashionistas or even fashion victims. The creation can carry a political statement in itself.

Coco Chanel’s skirt suit freed us from Victorian sexism in the form of corset while her preferences for jersey- the material for undergarment at her time- over silk in her designs reminded us that luxury must also be comfortable. Some decades later, Yves Saint Laurent took feminism a step further by dressing his women in men’s tuxedo and paired it with stilettos, an irresistible combination of Power and Seduction. Since the 80’s the concept of cross-dressing women have become obsolete, so instead of putting women in men’s clothes Jean Paul Gaultier has been putting men in women’s clothes for a change and Miucca Prada just turns the role of sex object to men in her Fall/Winter 08/09 menswear show this January.

However, all these concepts of How We Should Dress wouldn’t have and won’t materialise without a group of people called Fashionistas and Fashion Victims. These trendsetters might have been condemned by the masses and sometimes the authority for being different by adopting those “looks”. Chanel herself was arrested on the street of

Paris for wearing trousers and a Parisian socialite was booed by the men in a nightclub when she sported the infamous Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking. To think how much they had to go through, for me, they deserve a Nobel Prize. If you’d like to pay tribute to them, from now on please enjoy fashion substantially.  PS: Boys, the Japanese men started plucking their brows already a few years back, it won’t take long before they shave their legs and when that time comes, you can look good in a skirt too! PPSS: Happy Thai New Year!

[?]

Share This

My Article as published in the Bangkok Post’s supplementary Guru Magazine on April 11th 2008

 (Balenciagao Winter 06/07)

In an industry of applied arts like fashion, inspirations play a major role especially when you are Creative Director of ancient brands with long traditions like Chanel, Lanvin, Yves Saint Laurent or Balenciaga. The question that comes to mind is whether to create something extremely new or to keep the existing style of the House. Sitting all day in the Chanel archive and looking at Mademoiselle’s pictures is not enough. Karl Lagerfeld chooses to strike a balance and he does it best when he extracts the essence of the brand and gives it a fresh new life by his contemporary vision.

This man is God. At over 70 he still keeps up with the time. How? By changing his muses; from Anna Piaggi to Inès de la Fressange to Claudia Schiffer to Selma Blair to Lindsay Lohan to Keira Knightley and back to Claudia Schiffer and etc, etc. He now breathes the air of the contemporary through music. Rumour has it that he has around a dozen IPods in his possession with songs ranging from Debussy to Devandra Banhart and from Rimsky-Korsakov to Razorlight. Actually, along with his book Karl Lagerfeld Diet he even has his CD collection for sale. Try to imagine your grandfather doing all these.

Anyway, talking about a Library of Fashion as a source of reference and sometimes inspiration even John Galliano is questioned by my fashion history professor; “But does he (Galliano) go there (costume archive and fashion library) a little too much?

In

Thailand, we take inspirations in its purest form. Walking down the early Sukhumvit road, at the same time a bar girl is yelling “Handsome!” at some elderly Eurotrash of a tourist, one is attacked by an innumerable amount of stalls selling bags and watches and scarves and undergarments, many other things inspired by the likes of Vuitton, Pradra, Gucci, Rolex, Hermes, CK, and even Guess?Even at Siam Square, I remember going in fabulous accessory shops only to discover that they are all fake. They say the line that broke my heart. “We have our own factory and we buy the genuine version of this model so that we could copy it in the most exact manner and finest quality”. They OWN a factory but still use that factory to COPY others???

What is the thin red line between inspiration and counterfeiting?

Over a year ago I had an opportunity to visit the Pierre Berge and Yves Saint Laurent foundation at no. 5, avenue Marceau. The exhibition title was “L’Exotique” and it showcased the works of Yves Saint Laurent that were inspired by the Orient, the Russian and the East Asians. Superficially, some people would say that it’s easy to do what

Saint Laurent did; simply stealing ethnic styles from different countries and call them exotic. In reality he did much more than that for he didn’t make the exact. In other words; he didn’t just copy.

What he did was to borrow the essence of those styles, updating it to the contemporary use, adding his personal touches and although the detailing, sequins and embroideries appear very ethnic the techniques are pure French Haute Couture. For example, he might have borrowed the lightness and the abundance use of fabrics from the Chinese and Japanese but he made it even lighter by the use of chiffon instead of silk then draped them in a way that looked very fashionable and modern.

Perhaps that is how we call inspiration and not counterfeiting.  

During the ELLE Fashion Week 2008 Spring/Summer, I spotted some pieces of a Thai designer that bear great resemblances to those of the brand Balenciaga. Pictured here is a piece Nocolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga Autumn/Winter 06/07 collection. The Thai designer in question told us himself during a press conference that he draws out the elegance of the 60’s as his inspiration for this debut collection. I say it’s more of 06 than the 60’s.

What Nicolas Ghesquière did was a great example of a flawless interpretation of the 60’s bringing out the essence of the brand which was renowned for reshaping women’s silhouette. He has legitimacy to use the look because he was designing for the brand. The choice of fabrics and the cut and the silhouettes are already in the brand’s DNA since the beginning.

If you look more closely, Givenchy and Oscar de la Renta also had a similar style; well-constructed dress of minimal decoration. Balenciaga was Hubert de Givenchy’s mentor and Oscar de la Renta used to be Balenciaga’s disciple. There is legitimacy and history behind that. But what about our Thai designer in question.

To be as unbiased as I could, I would say that Nicolas Ghesquière is one of the greatest and most influential designers of the twenty first century and it would take less than a second for a visionary person to be inspired by his work. I, too, am inspired by him… Actually I want to marry him.

One can be greatly inspired by the works of others but if one is too absorbed with the inspirations can one still create one’s own distinctive voice? Your guess is as good as mine…  (Photo Courtesy of American Harper’s Bazaar)  

Share This