Bangkok | Frivolous Universe

RAISE THE RED LANTERN: Green Hot Chili Peppers, Year of the Dragon, & Asia Street Style’s Nana Chen

By: Kim Philley

07-02-2012

Even when you’re scared art is no dictionary. –Frank O’Hara

Green Hot Chili Peppers Dress: Street stall next to Sala Deang BTS, Bangkok

I once read an interview with Daniel Craig where he explained why he accepted the hefty mantle of becoming the new James Bond. He didn’t want to be a sad sack in his dotage, Craig said, sitting on a barstool, knocking back the Jameson and saying to everyone and anyone who cared to listen that he could have been Bond.

I moved to Bangkok for the same reason. Because I never wanted to explain to anyone–myself in particular–why I didn’t. When I could have. When I was not yet old and no longer young.

Red silk belt: Thrift store, Oxford, UK

For RAISE THE RED LANTERN, Nana Chen of Asia Street Style photographed me at midnight off a not-quite-deserted intersection in Bangkok’s Sathon district. An International Herald Tribune photographer out for a late dinner, tattooed drunks, and the occasional cockroach scuttled by. Bangkok being Bangkok (hard to surprise), none of them paid us much mind.

I picked up the green hot chili peppers dress from one of the Sala Deang street stalls I mentioned in last week’s post, FU MEETS ASIA STREET STYLE. I forgot exactly how much I paid for the dress, but it was under 250 Thai Baht ($8). Nana and I found the lurid blue-green peppers a little phallic at first blush; both of us agreed that a belt would solve the phallus problem.

White leather bracelet: leather accessories street vendor in Shida night market, Taipei

My favorite (& only) black leather bag: this bag has no label; I swear I’ll find the little Bangkok shop again one of these days

Nana also styled me and did my makeup for this shoot (see the bottoms of this post for product details). The nightlight is vintage Southeast Asia–an eerie mix of halogen and Chinese lantern. Chinese New Year has come and gone and now we are left with the Year of the Dragon. Dragon years are volatile to say the least–anything can, and will, happen.

Today I’m housebound with a wretched Bangkok flu. An hour ago I dragged myself down from my apartment, to my local market street, for a chicken-broth resupply. As I walked past the mango lady I heard an obnoxious cacophony of cymbals. I winced. I cursed. I reached for my Tiger Balm. And then I looked up: I was headed straight for the jaws of a dragon.

Bow-tied wool pencil skirt: Diane Von Furstenberg

Jade windchime earrings: by U.S. jewelry designer Hazel Cox (gift from FU’s Anna Demetraides)

Black plastic bracelet with elastic: H&M, Geneva

Tube top: Benetton, Taipei

Keep in mind this happened on a Tuesday at 11:30am in the middle of nowhere. The “dragon” was comprised of six Thai boys in matching red t-shirts and paper-mache. I put a 20 Baht bill between the monster’s fangs and watched him go on his jangling way. I watched the mango lady feed the beast a handful of 10 Baht coins; the noodle soup man slapped a generous 50 Baht note on the dragon’s tongue.

A few things I know about myself: I’m pathologically restless. I build on nothing. Like the Chinese, I burn my paper houses and walk away. This Dionysian photoshoot with Nana reminded me of lines from a favorite poem by Frank O’Hara:

becoming ultimately local and intimate / repeating the phrases of an old romance which is constantly renewed by the / endless originality of human loss the air the stumbling quiet of breathing / newly the heavens’ stars all out we are all for the captured time of our being

–“You Are Gorgeous and I’m Coming” (1959)

Notes on makeup by Nana Chen:

Eyesliner: YSL

Eyeshadow: Chanel

Blush: Bobbi Brown

Blot Powder: Mac

Lips: Mac

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FU MEETS ASIA STREET STYLE: Faux Chantilly Lace from a Bangkok Street Stall and Boise Moonstone

By: Kim Philley

30-01-2012

Kim

A large part of Bangkok is, to quote Beck, shopping malls coming out of the walls. And then there are the street stalls. And then there’s Nana Chen.

Lady Luck, happenstance, lot, pluck, providence–whatever you choose to call it, my first Friday night in Bangkok I got lost in a freight elevator with Nana Chen. Nana is a Saigon/Bangkok-based photographer with an exceptional eye for portraiture. She has a fashion blog called Asia Street Style (ASS). I blog for Frivolous Universe (FU). If that isn’t a match made in a stalled freight elevator, I don’t know what is.

On Sunday, to initiate me into the city of cheap thrills, Nana trotted out her collection of subtly-slutty faux-lace: tiny, tatted Matador jackets, Chantilly-esque trenchcoats, and ultra-feminine DayGlo ballerina-necked cotton tops. Turns out she had purchased them all for a pittance–150 Thai Baht or under $5 USD–at her local Silom street stall.

I love the detailing on this top–so much romance for under five dollars! And all I had to do was slip it over my James Perse tank top and my thrifted skirt by Maria Bianca Nero. Nana styled my lacy top for this photoshoot and posted three of these photos yesterday on Asia Street Style. These peekaboo cotton tops get snapped up fast in Bangkok–Pepto-Bismol pink was the only color left when we reached Nana’s favorite clothing stall. The fact that I was already wearing matching Cece ballet flats by J. Crew? Kismet.

This is my Idaho grandmother’s moonstone necklace. Every now and then it sheds a moonstone like a seven-year-old loses teeth. Despite their translucence, I always manage to find the lost moonstone. Perhaps if I sleep with one under my pillow, the Lime Fairy will come . . . .

My handbag is Dooney & Bourke, and it’s getting dirty. I could take it to one of Bangkok’s hi-so bag spas for a good shampoo, but I’d rather save my baht for cheap, glorious street clothes. By the way, the above photo is what you look like when, in the Bangkok heat, you reach full-wilt.

And this is what you look like when you recover! It’s hot here and life moves fast. Sometimes you just have to trust where you are and who you’re with.

To find the faux-lace clothing stall: Take BTS to Sala Deang. Exit 2. Walk along Silom until you reach the junction with Convent. Bring a little baht.

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SOOTHSAYIN’: 33 limes, parrot skirt, Sri Lankan augury, & a classic white blouse by Elizabeth & James

By: Kim Philley

24-01-2012

Kim

The first person I met in Bangkok was Mr. Deep. I got in at 2:00am the night before and was still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I stepped onto the platform of the Sky Train station at Thong Lor. The platform was deserted save for a well-heeled businessman. I looked at the man in the suit, he looked back at me. I smiled, he smiled. And then he said, ‘You just move to Bangkok–lucky, lucky lady!’

How could I resist? I walked ten meters down the platform to ask him how in the heck . . . .

‘Because I am Sri Lankan astrologist. My name Mr. Deep,’

‘So what’s your day job?’

He took offense: ‘I told you, I am astrologist!’ And then, with cosmic timing, he fielded a very important astrological call on his BlackBerry Pearl.

We ended up having tea together. The next day I started sleeping with 33 limes under my pillow.

I know I look like I’m taking a piss, but I wanted to show the detailing on this classic white blouse by Elizabeth and James (yes, that’s Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s line): three delicate buttons that loop in back when you want a fitted, ultra-feminine look.

When we sat down for tea, Mr. Deep tore the edge off a sheet of paper and scribbled something down. He had me clutch the wadded-up paper in the palm of my hand as we talked–about life and love and the infamous Bangkok heat. I didn’t mention any names or hint at a particular situation, and yet Mr. Deep told me there was a man in my life who I just couldn’t shake. ‘Now open your palm,’ he said. I unfolded the tiny fragment. My ex’s name was written on the piece of paper I had been holding all along, in a sloping, Sri Lankan hand.

Riot-of-color cotton skirt: ESP (Saim Paragon)

Mr. Deep crumpled another piece of paper and stuffed it into my hand. I sipped my iced green tea. ‘What’s your favorite flower?’ he asked.

I had to think about it for a second. Orchid.

‘How old are you?’

33.

‘What’s your biggest worry?’

My health.

‘Now open it.’

I unfurled my palm. This time the piece of paper Mr. Deep had placed in my hand minutes before read Orchid, 33, Health.

Red wallet: Italia Design (Delhi Airport)

Mr. Deep placed one last bit of paper into my hand. ‘Now write down a four-digit number,’ he said. I thought of four numbers. ‘Now write down four more.’ I jotted them down. ‘Another.’ Okay. ‘Now think of four more.’ The list was growing. ‘Now add the numbers together.’ I carefully did the arithmetic; my numbers added up to 2,779.

‘Now,’–he sounded serious as the grave–‘if you open your palm and the number I have written is the same as the number you have written, your problem can be solved. If you open your palm and it is a different number, your problem is between you and God.’

I opened my palm. I smoothed out the piece of paper: 2,779.

Stone bracelets: Central Market, Phnom Penh, & David Akins’ Reflexions Center giftshop, Nampa, Idaho

Pepto-Bismol pink ballet flats with hidden wedge: J. Crew

This was incredible news, but Mr. Deep told me there were a few things left to do: I needed to buy 33 limes. I had to sleep with them under my pillow. And each day I must walk through a busy crossroads and chuck one lime into the intersection.

Did I do it? Am I doing it? This is Bangkok. I’d be crazy not to toss those limes.

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Newer posts Older posts

RAISE THE RED LANTERN: Green Hot Chili Peppers, Year of the Dragon, & Asia Street Style’s Nana Chen

FU MEETS ASIA STREET STYLE: Faux Chantilly Lace from a Bangkok Street Stall and Boise Moonstone

SOOTHSAYIN’: 33 limes, parrot skirt, Sri Lankan augury, & a classic white blouse by Elizabeth & James

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