This legacy has legs
A month after actor Tridsadee “Por” Sahawong’s funeral, his widow Vanda (“Bow”) and their cute daughter Phakhwan (“Mali”) are keeping his memory alive by attending public events and appearing on magazine covers.
Por’s career manager, his uncle Sornmontra “Nam Oy” Pichaisornphlaeng, is also carrying on as the family’s manager, and they’ve got more in mind than just photo ops. In the images we’ve seen so far, Bow looks strong, like she’s coping well. And of course Mali, age two, is a guaranteed future superstar.
To concerns about Mali being in the public eye too young, Bow replies that they only accept jobs for her that suit her age and temperament and keep her feelings in mind. The events they attend are exactly the sort of outings any little girl would enjoy.
For her part, Bow wants to keep alive the projects her husband was planning before he fatefully contracted dengue fever, and that includes producing a TV drama series.
Bow says her final decision about the series has to wait until after the ceremony marking 100 days since his death and after Mali starts school in May. At the moment they’re merely assembling a production team and discussing possibilities.
She has a name picked out for the production company, though: It will be Portid, which was Por’s user name on Instagram, a contraction of his full name. Bow acknowledges that she’s completely inexperienced in this kind of work, but she’ll have the support of Nam Oy and friends in the business.
Upcountry tour guide tracks down stardom
The mystery of the suddenly famous Thai teenager who modelled Louis Vuitton gear for the German edition of GQ magazine has been solved.
Alerted to the photo spread by fashion blogger Noo Noi Bon Yod Doi An Nao Neb, reporters from Thai Rath TV and Channel 3 tracked down the 14-year-old in Kanchanaburi.
He’s a Karen named Khriao and he’s in Matthayom 1 at Udomsitthisuksa School in Sangkhlaburi. Apparently last December Khriao was going about his business working as a guide, on this occasion showing the sights to a crew from Louis Vuitton. He took them to Wat Wangwiwekaram, sunk in the waters behind Sri Nakharin Dam but partially visible at “low tide”.
Khriao was asked to pose for pictures in some of the new LV duds – kind of creepy, but these were “fashion people”, so what the heck. And anyway, the designer, LV artistic director Kim Jones, got his ideas from the earthy attire of the Lahu hilltribe, so there was that ethnic theme going. And the kid turned out to be a natural.
Khriao appears in two photos published in German GQ. In one he’s wearing a blue tracksuit with sporty “Lahu” red, white and blue stripes.
Jones has been to Thailand six times and visited Chiang Rai, where he stared at Lahu people a lot. He thought their outfits, though entirely traditional, had much in common with modern sportswear with all those stripes and things. Jones created an entire line of sportswear based on this notion and was in Bangkok last month to open a pop-up LV store at Siam Paragon.
For his day’s work, Khriao was paid Bt1,000, a tidy sum for a teenage tour guide in Kanchanaburi, though definitely not enough to buy anything from Jones’ LV collection.
