Sensuous drapings in Thai silk
Winners of the contemporary fashion contest have their night out
THE THREE WINNERS of the 2013 edition of the Culture Ministry’s Contemporary Fashion Contest recently showcased their collections at Vogue Fashion’s Night Out under the banners “The Contemporarist by OCAC” and “Elohim by Sabrina Goh”, a well-known label from Singapore.
Hosted annually by the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, the initiative aims to preserve the Thai textile legacy and promote the talent of young fashion designers on the international stage. The event is also helping to develop regional cooperation within Asean, inviting Singaporean fashion designer and her label, Elohim by Sabrina Goh, to design a special collection from Thai silk exclusively for this event.
“Nightcalls” by Strong Theveethivarak of Chulalongkorn University, the winner of this year’s contest, reinterprets Thai silk into a contemporary collection inspired by the concept of sleepwalking. The collection presents the unconscious body movement and actions by using forms and structural construction, simulating fabric draping and generating unique dimensions.
“The collection is expressed through pyjamas and the stories are told through various forms such as drapes and blankets. The fabric is simple, glossy, shiny, with basic colours such as white, grey, and purple,” he says.
“I also experimented with new techniques. For example, I tried bonding fabric with glue and sponge foam for a softer texture.”
Through his “Eight to Six Eleven to Four” collection, first runner-up Rukpong Raimathurapong expresses his observations of how people dress at day and at night. Experimental techniques in patterns, exaggerated forms and material surfaces are used to craft synthetic fibre and traditional Thai silk.
“I was inspired by the identities people assume during different time frames. The first part of this collection present the basic outfits but in a surreal manner. Then the second part develops homeless people who roam during the night. Two colour tones are utilised with two-thread silk in light blue and silver for day and four-thread silk in blue and navy blue for night. I also used silk that was damaged in the 2011 floods and has scattered colour stains,” he says.
Second runner-up Panuphong Inthamon demonstrates how perceptions are often simplified into what one wants to see – rather like history told through one person’s diary – in his “Sight Theory” collection. The Srinakharinwirot University designer was inspired by an old photo of Morocco, and used the Moroccan scarf in marble silk, plain silk, and Mudmee silk to drape on mannequins.
Goh’s collection, by contrast, had crows as its theme. “I’ve always thought of Thai textiles as cultural fabrics, the kind used only for traditional garments. I’ve never thought that I would use Thai silk in my design but when it was delivered to me, I knew I could create something new and stunning,” she says.
Wanting to reveal the other side of a feathered species normally associated with fear, Goh brought out the protective and territorial behaviour of the crow family through a collection that focuses on structure, wing-inspired design, angular cuts and oversized sleeves garments in a palette of white, black, grey and different blues.
