Self-study and classroom lessons based on newspaper feature stories

This column is for self-study or classroom use and gives guided help with reading the wide variety of writing styles and topics that appear as feature articles in the Bangkok Post. The lessons include background information, skill-building practice and vocabulary explanations.

April 22, 2003

Fashion with a Thai flair

INTRODUCTION

The frayed edges down the front and on the sleeves of this coat are design feature possible with the complex colours of Thai silk.
Today’s story is about a fashion designer, Liz Davenport who has found ways to use the characteristic designs and colours of Thai silk to suit western tastes – specifically the tastes of women in Australia.

Though there are other parts of the world south of the equator (the down or under side of the globe), it seems to be only Australia that is referred to as the land down under.

In the second paragraph of her story, today’s writer, Usnisa Sukhsvasti, says Ms Davenport got to "go behind the scenes" of traditional mudmee silk. To have a full appreciation and understanding of this story, you too, have to go behind the scenes.

To "go behind the scenes" is an idiom meaning to go into that part of a theatre that the public does not usually see – behind the backdrops that are the setting for a play. As an idiom, it means to get to know things that people in general are not aware of. That’s what you will be able to do in the first part of this lesson.
Going behind the scenes

First, [top and middle] a design is tied onto threads stretched over a frame. After dyeing, the pattern reappears on the loom. — Photos courtesy of Stephen Salmon, ThaiCraft
Mudmee is the Thai name for tie-dyed fabric with regular patterns. The fabric, like the one you see in the main picture, is created by tying bits of string around a continuous long thread that has been wound around a frame. The ties are made according to a pattern, usually one in the memory or imagination of the villager making the fabric.

Then the thread is dyed with one colour. That leaves the tied places not coloured. To make a fabric with three colours this process happens three times.

Finally, the thread is taken off the frame and put onto shuttles (thread holders) ready for weaving. On the loom (the equipment used for weaving), the pattern tied and dyed those three times reappears as the weaver works. It’s amazing.
Understanding frayed edges

You will read in the story that the designer, Liz Davenport, likes to discover the complex colours of a fabric by fraying (pulling threads away from) the edges. Using those frayed edges is a feature of her designs.

Picture the loom on which this fabric was made: the warp threads (those stretched lengthwise on the loom) are one colour, the weft (the threads woven horizontally across the warp) are another. It’s easy to understand why this foreign woman became fascinated with the silks she found here in Thailand.
From folk wisdom to the catwalk

Today’s story is really about Ms Davenport and her exploration of Thai silk. Below is some information for you to think about and a few questions to find answers to as you read the story.

Folk wisdom refers to knowledge and skills that have been learned from older generations, parents and grandparents. Folk wisdom often involves ways to use nature and the arts of a group of people. What is the folk wisdom in this story? Who has that wisdom?

The catwalk refers to the long walkway that extends into the audience at a fashion show. Models show off the latest designs while walking the catwalk. Where was the catwalk where Ms Davenport saw clothing by Thai designers? Where else will there probably be another catwalk if Ms Davenport is involved?

A design collection consists of the clothes a designer makes for one season. Ms Davenport says that her clothes are not just entities (single items) but are part of a total wardrobe; they fit together and complement each other. What characteristics does Ms Davenport try to achieve in her collection?

A foundation is an organisation set up to provide long-term help for some group of people or purpose. Foundations often provide money for scholarships, for example. What two foundations are mentioned in this story? Who will benefit? How will the benefit get to the people to be helped?
Expressing yourself

Liz Davenport is making changes to some of the oldest traditional products of Thailand. She has taken traditional fabrics, cut off pieces and used them in ways that are quite different from the way they are intended by the villagers who produce them.

Do you agree that is the right way to preserve traditional skills? Do you think there are more advantages than disadvantages to the work of people like Ms Davenport? Do you agree with the ideas in the story or do you think there is a better way? There are no correct answers, of course, but whatever your opinion, you must give reasons to support your idea?

OUR STORY FROM THE BANGKOK POST

Mudmee goes Down Under

Leading Australian designer falls in love with Thai silk

USNISA SUKHSVASTI

Designer Liz Davenport tackles her new collection of Thai silk to design fashions that can be mixed and matched and that travel well.
Mudmee tie-dyed silk from Thailand’s northeastern provinces is preparing to hit the streets of Australia in a big way, and it’s all due to the enthusiasm of a designer with a big heart by the name of Liz Davenport.

Ms Davenport was invited as a guest designer to attend Her Majesty the Queen’s annual Thai Silk Festival organised by the Support Foundation at Phuphan Palace in Sakon Nakhon last year. It was here that she had the chance to go behind the scenes of traditional Thai mudmee silk, to see the fabrics as the product of generations of folk wisdom and craftsmanship, as pieces of exceptional beauty generated from the minds, the hands and the looms of villagers.

She also had the chance to see the exotic end products on the catwalk, as visualised by leading Thai designers. Now, it’s her turn to turn these shimmering fabrics into stylish outfits to suit the western wardrobe.

Back in Thailand once again on another buying spree, Ms Davenport waxed lyrical about her new project, a row of finished and half-finished outfits hanging in one corner.

"I have worked with all the different fabrics: jersey, pure wool, rayons, cottons, Chinese, Indian and Thai silks. All three silks have different personalities, but the richest is definitely Thai silk. It’s a rich, living silk that glows, and that’s what people go `Ooh! Aah!’ over."

Liz Davenport’s fashions, sold through 14 outlets throughout Australia, are known for colour and coordination, outfits that mix and match and travel well, fashion items that "are not just an entity but are part of a total wardrobe". They are classic "treasures" that can be dressed up or down, can be worn in summer or winter, teamed fitted pants, slim skirts.

What Ms Davenport has done is to give the Thai silk a non-traditional treatment. Fabric with borders, which are worn as pasin tube shirts with matching jackets in the conventional style, have been reinterpreted and given a new perspective. "The borders have been cut off and used as pocket flaps, collars, or even hidden inside the facing of a jacket as a little secret feature."

Working with mudmee silk has been an adventure in itself, and for a designer who has been dubbed the "Colour Lady" of Australian fashion, the fabric offers the challenge and excitement of discovery. "I love contrasting colours, and with Thai silk, you don’t even know what the colours are going to be until you fray the edges, then you discover the unexpected."

As a result, her mudmee silk collection, known unofficially as the Queen’s Silk Collection, has as its underlying motif of frayed edges along the hem, the cuffs, in the off places wherever the imagination takes her. Its undulating movements have a distinct sensuality that should appeal to fashion advocates of every age group.

The star of the collection — in keeping with international fashion trends this year — is the "coat", from corporate style jackets for the business professional to elegant jackets for evening, from short waist-high boleros to long ankle-skimming evening coats in myriad colours from black on black to muted green and shocking pink.

The first collection, as is to be expected, is almost experimental, based on the haphazard pieces the designer managed to pick up at the silk fair during her first short visit to Sakon Nakhon last year.

"I bought as many pieces as I could carry before they chased us on the bus for the airport," laughed Ms Davenport, recounting her experience of visiting the silk market where villagers had come from several northeastern provinces to display their handwoven treasures.

"Apart from indulging in the variety of colours and textures of the fabrics, another exciting thing about the trip was talking to the women (despite the language barriers), relating to the person who created the handmade silk. That, in essence, is the charm of Thai silk from the Support Foundation, that it comes not as a mass product from a quality-controlled factory, but from individual people who put their heart and soul into the work, synchronising their hands and feet as they sit at their looms.

"I honestly don’t think the world knows the secret of Thai silk the way that they should. I think that the product is much greater than people realise. When I saw all that silk and all those women, I saw another world just waiting to happen, where all that wonderful artistic talent could be made much more commercial so that they get more money for their fabrics."

To reflect this aspect of the silk experience, Ms Davenport plans to set up a foundation where a fraction of the money from purchases will go straight back to the weavers themselves. It provides a human touch to the raw material, and Ms Davenport is eager to help promote it, just as she combined her strong socio-political views with a previous collection.

A few years back she actually created a political party called Liberals for Forests, with a strong environmental emphasis, just to save the forest in the southwestern corner of Australia. She stood against the premier of her state, and very nearly beat him, though he eventually resigned. The experience led to her Forest Collection.

Her Thai silk collection is due to be launched in Australia at the end of May, and if the advance feedback is anything to go by, it’s going to be a great success.

The collection will eventually be shown in Thailand, in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen, at the next Support Foundation Thai Silk Festival at the end of the year.

"There’s going to be so much colour, it’s going to be so spectacular, but immensely wearable," she gushed with enthusiasm.

SOME VOCABULARY HELP

exotic
fascinating, strange and wonderful

visualised
imagined: formed a picture in the mind

spree
a short period of time spent doing one particular activity

waxed lyrical
expressed strong emotion in an imaginative way

jersey
a soft finely-knitted fabric

teamed
put together with

conventional
following what is generally considered acceptable

reinterpreted
understood or presented in a new or different way

facing
a layer of fabric sewn inside a piece of clothing

motif
a design or a pattern used as a decoration

off places
unusual or rarely noticed spots

undulating
moving gently like waves

sensuality
a quality that gives pleasure to the senses

advocate
a person who supports or speaks in favour of something

bolero
a women’s short jacket open at the front

skimming
touching lightly

myriad
an extremely large number of something

muted
(of colours) not bright; soft

haphazard
with no particular order or plan

synchronise
to move at the same speed

socio-political
concerning social issues and government action

stood against
opposed in an election

immensely
extremely; very much

gush
to express with excessive praise or emotion

•This lesson was prepared by Maureen Paetkau, a professional teacher of English as a second and foreign language and Assistant Manager and Webmaster for Learning Post at the Bangkok Post.

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