Style spotting at Elle Fashion Week

BANGKOK — Elle Fashion Week hasjust ended here, sponsored by Thailand’s Elle magazine to present homegrown fashion for Autumn/Winter 2008.

Spotted were the usual fashion students, young designers, stylists, manufacturers and international buyers who gathered at Central World to watch shows from labels like 27 Friday, Hook’s by Prapakas, Headquarter and more.

Young designer and Thai royalty, HRH Princess Sirivannavari opened the event with her Ethnic Rock collection for her label called SIRIVANNAVARI (what else?).

Seated on front row were her special guests from New York, Visionaire’s Cecilia Dean and famous club fixture/drag queen Lady Bunny, who created quite a stir with the Thai paparazzi.

The hottest show was clearly the last one, Zenithorial, which featured local celebrities and model imports, with a hype similar to our Bench underwear shows in Manila.

Picture taking was not allowed inside the tent, but when the Zenithorial models came out in their white undies, it seemed like the Thai security could no longer stop people from taking shots, according to account executive Jay Abalos who took these photos for the Radar.

Jay travels to Bangkok once a year to attend the shows and shares observations on how Thais conduct their fashion week.

First of all, the Thais really have a fashion industry, with buyers coming in from local stores and foreign countries. 

Unlike Philippine fashion week, they don’t jam-pack 100-plus designers into several group shows.

Elle Fashion Week only had 13 designers showing full collections and two group shows presented by The Zen Design Collection and Young Designers supported by Nokia.

Invitations are hard to come by. You really need a connection to get in, as in no invite, no entry, even if you’re from the industry.

Since cameras were strictly forbidden outside, most of these photos were taken outside the tent—all the better to get a glimpse of Thai fashion and more without actually having to fly.