The definition of “in Vogue”, Somchai looks back
Vogue Thailand has dragged clothing designer Somchai Kaewtong out of his sustained low profile with a 12-page spread in its current edition. It includes a rare interview and some truly stunning photos of the latest haute couture collection from his boutiq
Although Somchai has remained aloof from the runway, his beautiful togs are often seen draped on celebrities at public events. As recently as Saturday night, actress Kanokwan Dan-udom was clad in Kai, a gorgeous golden evening gown, when she received lifetime-achievement honours at the televised Golden Television Awards.
The surprise behind Somchai’s success is that he never graduated from any fashion school. At the beginning, he says, he couldn’t even make a basic pattern. In the subsequent five decades, though, he became the country’s most respected couturier as he pushed Thai fashion onto the world stage. Even members of the royal family wear his elegant creations.
All this and much more is covered in the Vogue interview – the rural high-schooler from Yala carrying his art studies at the Poh Chang Institute on to Silpakorn University. He didn’t stay there long, quitting to become a dressmaker, opening his own business at age 22, upstairs at the Siam Theatre in Siam Square. That was 1969, the first step on the road to fame, and now he’s 69.
“It’s been up and down ever since, but my brand is still alive,” Somchai says. “I still don’t know much about the fashion business. The only reason I’ve survived is because I have my dreams. I always dream of new things and make them happen.”
Most in demand for the fabulous wedding gowns that truly are dreams come true, he makes everything by hand, and the imagination and effort are evident in the prices. Even the most basic wedding dress costs many thousand baht, and once bejewelled with gems it can run to Bt1 million.
Back in the early days, Somchai says, there were few fashion magazines in Thailand. He drew his inspiration mostly from the movies. Long before Leonardo DiCaprio came along, Robert Redford did a film of “The Great Gatsby”, and Somchai came out with a line of clothes for his first fashion show, “1920s Look”, with our own movie stars and hi-so figures doing the modelling – including Kanokwan.
He’s grateful to her and to another veteran actress, Patravadi “Khru Lek” Meejudon, who he credits with cementing his place in the Thai fashion scene. “She’d just graduated overseas and was very trendy, the hottest lady around. She ran a fashion magazine called Femina and opened a boutique with Patsri Bunnag at the Ploenchit Centre.”
There’s a reason, it turns out, why many of Kai’s cocktail dresses resemble ballet costumes. At age eight he wanted to be up on his toes onstage. By age 15 he was learning the steps from one of Thailand’s great early ballerinas, Khunying Varaporn Pramoj.
Somchai is also keen to credit French designer Pierre Balmain, whose marvellous dresses made for Her Majesty the Queen gave him added inspiration, and to Vogue Thailand editor Kullawit “Ford” Laosuksri, who trained with him 28 years ago. Ford went on to a fashion institute in France and then joined the Thai edition of Elle , eventually becoming its editor and, in 1999, initiating Elle Fashion Week.
The annual event united Thai fashion, Somchai says, and kept him on the runway for 15 years, despite constant fretting about competition from the younger generation. It proved to him, he says, “that I can survive”.
