Klyduan, Pimdao and Matina Sukhahuta picked up an old and slightly faded photo that showed them in matching swimsuits and standing in birth order.
"This is one of our most favourite childhood pictures. We were five, eight and 10," said the eldest sister, Klyduan. "On the weekend, we were in our swimsuits all the time because we always spent time by the pool."
The youngest, Matina, added that the raffled green bathing suit in the photo was among her staples, while the second-born Pimdao has vivid memories of how their father regularly bought them a set of identical or matching items.
That the Sukhahuta siblings grew up to become Thailand's best-known sisters in fashion was not an overnight success. Intimate family ties, sisterly love and childhood dreams are all contributing factors that place their brand Sretsis on the global runway, conquering 125 stockists around the world. The opening of Sretsis Inn in Aoyama, Tokyo, in 2014, the brand’s first flagship boutique store outside of Thailand, also confirms their rise in the international fashion scene.
When Klyduan, Pimdao and Matina together launched the brand in 2002, they found that their distinct personalities and preferences complemented each other perfectly in running a fashion house. Pimdao takes on the mantle of design. Matina makes fantastic jewellery. Klyduan oversees the overall operations and marketing.
"When she was 12, I was looking at her like, ‘Why are you so grown-up!'," Matina laughed while referring to her eldest sister who is at the helm as managing director.
"She’s the typical eldest sister type," said Pimdao. "When we went to our uncle’s house, for example, she would behave properly like the perfect firstborn daughter. She was always the helpful and responsible big sister while Matina and I were very childish."
Klyduan smiled, replying that it was "because I’d always been taught to be a good big sister, to take care of the younger siblings since I was young".
As little girls, while Klyduan was known as a perfectionist and Matina as an obedient follow-along little sister, Pimdao unknowingly showed off her creative skills since she was a kid. Currently the creative director of the house, in the past Pimdao would come up with a "theme" for the children’s games she'd play with her sisters and cousins who lived in the same compound.
"If we were staging a play, I would write the script for everyone. Our games varied. They included everything from selling noodles, a safari trip, treasure hunts to fashion shoots," she said.
Klyduan remembered that the siblings’ most favourite thing to play around with was fashion photography. They would flip through their mother’s glossy fashion magazines, set up their own studio and turn clothing, accessories and everything around the house into their unusual designs. Coloured paper and Sanrio blankets became their photo backdrop. Pimdao’s masterpiece was a tube dress made from toilet paper decorated with origami stars.
"Pimdao was a stylist and Matina was the model. We were very serious about it," Klyduan laughed. “We used a film camera and were very excited to see the photos and select them when they came out. We got tonnes of albums.”
Looking back at how they played when they were young, Klyduan, Pimdao and Matina are now almost doing the same thing in their business.
"It’s unbelievable," Klyduan enthused. "When we did lookbooks for our early collections, Matina was the photographer and Pimdao was the stylist. We all helped one another. It reminded us of how we played when we were small girls."
"I strongly believe in our instincts," Pimdao said. "With what we were into at a young age, it just never changes. People might evolve but they really never change."
“I think the ones who suffer in life are those that don’t get to do what they are really passionate about. He or she might do something [for a living] because he or she thinks that it’s what they are supposed to do. They might suppress their own callings. We feel very fortunate that our parents fully supported us in doing what we love, even though none of them had a background in the creative industry. But they never forced us to be something we didn't want to.”
As the young Klyduan, Pimdao and Matina weren't allowed to play video games, they spent their childhood outdoors. They remember how their uncle kept exotic animals including peacocks, colobinae, wild rabbits, small deer, hornbills and even a baby leopard in the compound. Their mini adventures and animal-watching of those exotic pets have intuitively been reincarnated in Sretsis' fanciful collections.
"A lot of times, we are asked to define Sretsis' signature style. We would say that what we do is a grown-up’s fantasy, a playful imagination that is reinterpreted in the perspective of a sophisticated grown woman," said Klyduan.
The Sretsis sisters may be one of the few adults who can bring their childhood playground into a present-day reality and business success. They admitted that their fashion brand is virtually a world of "make-believe" that has come purely out of love and what they believe in. In creating a collection for each season, it is essential to them to keep their childhood fantasies and imaginations alive.
"I feel that whatever we create from our imagination is very special," added Pimdao. "We are happy to be able to create and we are happy that what we create can reach out to people who may relate to those dreams and enjoy them with us.”
"The little kids inside us have never gone away," said Matina. "When we grow up, it doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy the ride. It’s the fun, freshness and fascination of a child that inspires us and keeps us going. Kids, to me, are naive and real."
The Sretsis sisters, co-founders of the fashion brand Sretsis.
Klyduan Sukhahuta.
Pimdao Sukhahuta.
Another home-grown fashion show.
The childhood picture wall at home.
