PM Thaksin Shinawatra inaugurated last night's "Bangkok Fashion City Extravaganza 2004" at the Royal Thai Naval Institute overlooking the Chao Phraya River. The "Bangkok Fashion City" project is Thailand's latest ambitious move to try and put Thailand on the world map by striving to turn Bangkok into one of the world's trend capitals and international fashion hub.
The "Bangkok Fashion City" project is to be focused on promoting 3 fashion-related sectors in Thailand, including textile and garment, gems and jewellery plus leather and footwear, according to the Thai leader. "I believe that we'll achieve the goal of making Bangkok the fashion hub of Asia by the year 2012", declared the Thai premier in his opening speech.
For the glorious opening night of "Bangkok Fashion City" with a fashion show, Thailand's Premier brought out the fashion world's longest pair of legs to kick off the campaign plus a splendid assembly of other international supermodels on a specially-designed 110-metre catwalk along the Chao Phraya River against the backdrop of the Royal Palace and glittering temples.
Highlight of the event was the presence of Nadja Auermann, a German supermodel, who is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the female supermodel with the longest pair of legs in the world at 114 centimeter.
Other supermodels taking part in the event included Eunis Chan from Hong Kong, Charmine from Singapore, and Shantina from Taiwan. Thai supermodels joining the fashion show were Metanee Kingpayom, Sirinya Burbridge, Odette Jackomin. Florence Faver, Namtip Ratchatavibul, and Kemapsorn Sirisukka.
"This is just the start of our showcase of the good products we produce in Thailand," Thaksin said. "Good products, good design and reasonable prices," is how we want Thailand to be known in the future. With the "Bangkok Fashion City" project we will push, catch up and overtake Tokyo in the fashion and trend stakes, this will involve high-profile fashion shows and many tax breaks for approved fashion projects and investments in Thailand.
Premier Thaksin also wants Thailand to become Asia's premier aviation hub, Asia's oil trading centre, Asia's tourism hub, Asia's shopping mecca and Asia's conference center destination to elevate the economy of Thailand and the importance of Bangkok to that of first-class world status in the near future.
But on yesterday's gentle night, while the eyes of Thailand's government officials were fixed on Nadja Auermann's long legs and the other supermodels from around the world, parading in chiffon gowns on a bombastic catwalk on the Chao Phraya river, designers involved in and invited to the fashion show doubted Thailand would get very far because of the small public interest in fashion in a country in Asia where spending power lags far behind the likes of Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong.
Some invited designers were also critical of Thursday's fashion show.
"That's going to be difficult one for Bangkok," said a famous US-based Thai designer who leads the US fashion house that dresses Sarah Jessica Parker, the movie star that appears in the television series "Sex and the City".
After what I saw here tonight, I don't want to launch my brand and production in Thailand", he said, complaining that the show was very poorly organized.
Another designer said "Bangkok can never become Paris or Milan", he further added "the beautiful scenery of the Chao Phraya River and the Royal Grand Palace is wasted on clothes that are so out of............
"It is just a competition of extravagance and reckless spending of the government's money, the fashion they are showing is only fit for drag queens", said another very famous European based Thai designer. "I was so embarrassed when watching the show, I wanted to run away. The international press probably thinks Thailand doesn't have a clue what a fashion show is about."
The line-up of supermodels was noticeably dominated by Western or half-Thai models, the preferred look on Thai catwalks at this moment. "In the international fashion-world, the Brazilian look is in," said Thai-American model Amy Stames, adding that the average Thai girl often does not have "the right body type" that international fashion designers are looking for.
Some designers are also worried by what they say is Thailand's government's prudish attitude and intervention towards fashion shows and the designer world. Organizers of another recent international fashion show in Bangkok got fined by the Culture Ministry of Thailand because some models wore designs that exposed parts of their breasts.
