Tirapan and his weavers create a wow with Jurassic silk

 Ideas for costumes made with this extraordinary material immediately sprang to mind. 

“I’ve designed outfits from all sorts of silk in all sorts of patterns – the flowers of the Murraya exotica, the naga serpent and even the kotchasi, the mythical creature with a lion’s body and an elephant’s head – but I’d never seen this dinosaur pattern before,” Tirapan tells Vogue Thailand, which has a photo spread on his outfits in its October magazine.

The Isaan weavers didn’t spontaneously start replicating cave paintings, of course. They drew their inspiration from past discoveries of dinosaur bones in the Northeast, which seems to have been the great reptiles’ preferred habitat in the territory that became Thailand. There was even a Tyrannosaurus running around up there.

Tirapan’s genius was to turn something very, very ancient into a very modern design, albeit on an indigo-and-gold dress that owes much to 1960s style. “It now belongs to Nuanpan ‘Pang’ Lamsam,” he reveals.

Vogue Thailand illustrates Tirapan’s legacy with a series of cocktail dresses that combine Thai silk with lace and neat tailoring, giving them a truly cosmopolitan appeal. The collection was made in collaboration with the Agriculture Ministry’s Queen Sirikit Department of Sericulture and Srinakarinwirot Prasarnmitr University’s Faculty of Fine Arts.

It’s one of several projects giving Thai silk another goose in the world of high fashion, and Tirapan is surely the man for the job, steeped as he is in haute couture.

Vogue Thailand style director Jirat Subpisankul and fashion photographer Tada Varich completed the mission with a breathtaking set of pictures. The models, who don’t appear to be Thai at all, look great in Tirapan’s knee-length dresses in beige, golden lime, peach and indigo/white against the rustic backdrop of a construction site. 

The artisans of the Northeast are well known for making the most gorgeous ikat silk, using a tricky procedure that involves specially dyeing the thread in both warp and weft prior to weaving. Specifically these gifted craftspeople live in the villages of Srichumchuen in Ubon’s Nong-or district and Sri Ubon in Nong Bua Lamphu’s Naklang district.

“This year’s project was very successful,” says Sompop Jongrueysap of the Sericulture Department. “Everyone was really excited to be participating, so we got many beautiful pieces.”

Tirapan comes by his love of Thai silk honestly enough: “My mother’s been wearing Thai silk sarongs since I was a little boy,” he explains, referring to Khunying Chao Chomchaba Wannarat. “I often accompanied her when she purchased fine fabrics, so I learned all about the history and techniques.

“Since I began working with Her Majesty the Queen’s Support Foundation, my silk creations have become well known, and nowadays there are many foreign designers putting Thai silk on the world’s runways. I believe a lot of Thais will soon start wearing clothes made from silk again.”