Creativity is contagious - pass it on (A.E.): thai silk

Showing posts with label thai silk. Show all posts

10 Mar 2018

Discovering Thai Silk Part III

I learnt a lot from this trip to Bangkok on silk. Yes, I also ended up buying polyester hoping it was silk. By now I know how to differentiate between fake and real - luckily I didn´t pay unreasonable prices for the polyester I got at the end.
Lessons learned -
1. Real thai silk comes in real shops. Never in malls, markets and such- unless you go to the provinces and able to find the families producing it.
2. Real thai silk has it´s price. Don´t expect anything under $15/m (that´s plain silk without print or woven pattern). The sellers of real silk wouldn´t bargain much either (if at all).

These are all polyester

They come in plastic bags/4m/bag

Here are a few useful links on where and how to buy Thai silk in Thailand/Bangkok.
Buying Silk in Bangkok
Be able to differentiate between silk and poly
Fabric shopping in Bangkok
More info on thai silk

1 Mar 2018

Discovering Thai Silk Part II

After visiting the Jim Thompson House and realizing they don´t sell silk by the meter I was more than disappointed. However the ladies at the souvenir shop gave some directions on how to get to the main store. So I hopped onto the Skytrain and hopped off at Sala Daeng. A few minutes of walk and there it was - the store of my dreams.

It was opened in the 50´s - it´s again a building you wouldn´t expect in the area. Like a little oasis of a small town feeling.

A two-story building with a nice coffee shop inside with view to the beautiful fabrics on the second floor-

Printed silk medium weight @ $30/m

Uni silk medium weight @ cc. $25/m

More printed silk

...and more printed silk

They also had some heavier silk jacquard @ $70/m. I ended up buying these beauties.

This is the heavy jacquard - it´s black and beautiful

28 Feb 2018

Discovering Thai Silk Part I.

I was lucky enough to get to Thailand recently and have the chance to discover what´s called Thai silk - and the man who was behind it.

Jim Thompson was an American doing military service in the region - and decided to stay there after. He was originally an architect but had a passion for silk - and slowly revived Thai silk production which was mainly done manually in small villages in Northern Thailand. His company is still operational and although owned by shareholders the majority is still in Thai hands. The silk they sell is known for quality and reasonable pricing.

Lots of books are available on the story, where he had luck and how he managed to create not only the quality product we know today but also develop the market for it.

My first visit lead to his house in Bangkok which is a small island in the middle of a thriving metropol amongst skyscrapers.

It´s by the Klong (or canal) and made of 6 traditional houses built together. Photos are not allowed inside the house but multiple books are available what´s in there (I can tell JT had a passion also for antiques from the region so the house is packed with ancient sculptures and household items)