Khon Kaen teen takes fashion designing to exotic heights
APICHET "Madaew" Atilattana, a 16-year-old high-school student in the Northeast, is an aspiring fashion designer who creates his designs using everyday items such as mosquito nets, morning glory, flowering bush, banana leaves and even a bamboo fish tray
Madaew is a high-school student at Fang Wittayayon School in a suburban area of northern Khon Kaen province.
His followers on Facebook and Instagram have skyrocketed to over 200,000 since he started posting his unusual fashion images about six months ago.
“I see fantastic fashions in everything. I got the idea for my banana leaf dress when I walked through a banana plantation and I saw different layers in colour of each leaf,” he said.
“Therefore, I wrote it down and brought it to life.”
Besides his talent in fashion, the teenager is also good at school – his score for the Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net) was the highest in his school.
He said the idea came to him when he was nine years old.
He and his friend used to act as models and catwalk on stage with many friends acting as judges.
The competition was so tough that it forced him to tap creative ideas like wrapping himself |with cloth remnants found in the classroom corner.
“All the photo shoots were conducted by me, such as the picture where I went up a tree and I pointed to the spot where my friend should take pictures. Then I pick up the best picture,” he said.
In each dress, he tries to put some meaning into it such as the vegetable basket relating to his family vocation, which is selling vegetables, the teenager said.
“At first, my parents didn’t understand what I was doing because they had no idea about social media and they were busy with their business of selling vegetables in the fresh market. But after their friends in the market showed them my picture with thousands of comments, they became fascinated with all the affection and money I was earning from TV interviewing and being product presenter. My family ended up helping me during photo shoots,” he said.
Later, he would have his picture uploaded on Facebook and Instagram. He was fascinated by the thousands of affectionate and cheerful comments, so he continued while trying to become more creative by using unconventional material such as cooking utensils, clothes hangers and mosquito nets.
After his pictures went viral, he became recognised as an Internet idol and people began to spot him at places were he went, with some asking to take a picture with him.
Madaew’s “dresses” have shown that being creative is important in fashion designing.
RELATED