Now in its 18th year, Bangkok's symbol of fashion -- the big, white tent-- returned to CentralWorld to give its spectators a taste of the season's upcoming looks. Elle/Elle Men Fashion Week 2016 ran from Sept 2-4, featuring a total of 11 shows by established names and organisations, both private and governmental (the usual Zen Department show and another by the Department of Industrial Promotion).
Come rain or storm, fans of fashion packed the tent to get a first glimpse of this fall's collections. Life gives you the full reportage of what went down inside that iconic, white tent this past weekend.
DAY 1
Greyhound Original
The first show of the season came predominantly in black. Bring on leather jackets and blazers, we're digging the smart-casual unisex look that can be both street-chic and office-chic in this "Quiet is a new loud" collection by Greyhound. Details are minimal and simplistic -- the basic, timeless black with flashes of twist in solid red, conspicuous orange and more. The style was inspired by the rebellious 1980s modern punk movement that livened up the white runway in a bold yet playful way. Gender line is ever blurry with some of the androgynous combinations crossing the usually gender-specific silhouette into fluidity. Form-fitting clothes are also on minimum. Comfortably loose, though nothing too baggy, is the trend to go for this season.
Thai Touch: The Ultimate Showcase
Six young-blood designers -- Slob, Wanna, The Denim Project, NKD, Thope and Surreal Stitch -- converged in a joint show supported by the Department of Industrial Promotion. Similarly in palette, Thope and Slob brought on their classy-lady styles with a hint of feathery fringe to the table with black, nude and white as their main colours. For hip street wear, nothing says cool and confident the way The Denim Project's all-white denim ensemble rocks the runway. But if it's fun you're seeking, Wanna, NKD and Surreal Stitch give varying degrees of bashing playfulness to light up the party. While Wanna aims for a minimalist look, NKD and Surreal Stitch went all out in their selection of red patterns and flashy metallic goodies. Keep these six on your watch list. We expect more good things from them in the future.
Kloset
An apple a day may keep the doctors away, but an entire ranch of it keeps fashionistas fixated on Kloset's latest that features an insane amount of these blood red, fleshy fruits. Be they giant props on the stage, earrings, bags, stitch works on the fabric -- you name it. The flowing silhouette came with a touch of flowers and frills in a sweet yet wild manner of a posh country girl. It was like we planted ourselves into a blossoming garden bed, making quite a homage to Edward Hemingway's Bad Apple, the children's book this collection took its inspiration from. Kloset made a lively finale on Day 1. And when it all ended with a curtsy and bow, we had Duffy's Mercy to send us off as we continued the party outside the white tent.
DAY 2
Painkiller
Painkiller takes us to the land before time, tracing back to when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. The runway imitated a museum or laboratory, decorated with dinosaur skulls and men as paleontologists suited up in smart outfits with a boyish touch. Painkiller offers coats, jackets, jumpers and wide leg trousers. Most come in earth tone colours such as black, brown, green, camouflage with a few bright colours like orange brick. It's probably their style to dress up in many layers but that also shows the possibility on how the collection can be easily mixed and matched. Special in this collection, Isan local fabrics were selected, the region where most dinosaur fossils were discovered, but there was also a distinctly modern touch.
ASV
All the so-called "proper" women's values, like not smoking or taking drugs, had been put into audience members' heads right before the show started. However, the women representing ASV seemed to set new standards for females to be expressive and stick to their standpoint. Set as a high school library, models were preppies who sought to express their freedom, and at the same time, be smart. The versatile suit jacket was the key silhouette, as well as those contemporary flairs that proclaimed a preppy style, like a cropped jacket, one shoulder top and culottes. There are both masculine and feminine type fabrics featuring in this collection; polyester and silk chiffon. All presented in Asv's familiar colours in black, beige and blue along with seasonal hues like ruby wine and dusty orange.
Zen Designer Squad
What Zen's Designer Squad had to offer at the show was to give a glimpse of what Zen's second floor will be like this season. It's interesting to see a variety styles of outfits, from evening gowns to casual to street wear in one show as it gathered over 10 upcoming Thai designers at once, such as Cher'z and Sheranut, with the highlighted brands including Iconic, Q Design and Play (QDAP) and THEA by Thara. There seemed to be no common theme for the show so the runway was kept plain and clean. However, QDAP was the most eye-catching show due to its outstanding design and presentation. The collection is obviously inspired by a condom package. The models ran on the runway instead of elegantly walking, which successfully grabbed people's attention.
Milin
Strong, confident, and beautiful is what Milin's latest collection is about. The show looked futuristic as it embraced a lot of light and metal, while models put on modern-looking make-up. Spotlights shining bright on two sides of the runway which underlined the "elegance of women", according to Milin's definition. The collection comes with hybrid symbols for strength and powerful like chains and a steel feminine sense, like sweet flower. Many special techniques, such as metallic coated laces, plastic coated tweed, are implemented in Milin's outfits for the first time. Both patterns and strong silhouettes decorated with drapes go in the same direction which is to emphasise women's suavity, along with power. A mixture of different kinds of fabric in one dress and darker (than previous collections) colours are something Milin chose to experience for more maturity.
DAY 3
Patinya
In an understated but classy (as per usual) show, we had Gam the Star bellowing live, super-diva tunes (Hello, Can't Keep My Hands To Myself) as a backdrop to leggy models with long trains and frills. The Patinya princess is quite invasive of other people's space this season. In this parade of evening gowns, fabrics such as velvet and those used to make lingerie make up flouncy ruffles and frills that add onto lace bodices and skirts. This time, it's much more voluminous than the Patinya silhouette usually is and it's definitely out to graze other people's arms, feet and bodies when walking past them. There are deep hues like blood red, but also a solid offering in this year's Pantone duo of Serenity blue and Rose Quartz pink. After all, if you can't get gowns in baby pastels here, you probably can't find them anywhere else.
Kemissara
Velvet is this season's must-have. How to wear it: all over or nothing. Kemissara offers a lot of it too -- be it dresses, skirts, tops, knee-length boots or culottes. Wear it all in one solid colour, although there is the option to play around with other tones of the same shade and texture, giving more dimensions to the total look. Pleated ruffles and light, net fabrics are also a highlight in this collection, and come in yummy colours like powder pink, mint green, lilac purple and mustard yellow. If the one-colour-scheme isn't your game, break the solidness with the trousers that are contrasted with a thick stripe on the side with another colour -- it's borderline sporty (for the athleisure trend now!) but still fancy enough for any social calling.
Vatanika
When this glamazon brand decides to raise hell, they do so quite literally by having their models smash the neon lighting in the backdrop into "Hell Here" from the initial "Hello There". With lots of attitude and septum rings, this is what it looks like when a Vatanika girl turns into a punk rock rebel. There are fetish-inspiring fish-eye netted tops that bare all for all to see, paired quite fittingly with bottoms with side slits held together by gold-tinted hardware -- quite like the ones Mai Davika wore for the Magnum event at Cannes earlier this year. This metal detail is everywhere this season, if not replaced by the rocker zipper which can be zipped to racy heights. There are distressed jeans and leopard printed pieces for the gay BFF too, just in case he wants to be matchy matchy with the whole squad.
Hook's
Whatever happened to that rumour that it was going to be Hook's last show last year? Oh well. The last show of the season made the crowds wait forever, but it sure was worth it. In fact, we weren't so sure what to take in first between the crazy headgear, space helmets, Avatar make-up or the actual clothes, which were divided into half a dozen groups. There was a clear futuristic/machina theme, with models strutting about in a robotic manner, in dresses and jackets that have structured and constructed folds, with lots of triangular shapes. Some featured reflective foils like you'd find in space, while others flaunted beadwork so blinding, despite the black background. While some of the props and styling were more than enough to inspire nightmares, they'd more than easily be welcomed to any upcoming sci-fi movie.
