Thai copy artists & ikat silk

My favourite pair of summer pants:

sorry very small picture

They are so threadbare that I was almost worried a copy would be too big because the fibers have relaxed a lot in the past five years of wear. I had debated copying them myself by taking them apart.  I was right to consider this an urgent matter, as later on this trip they fell apart spectacularly by ripping open across the entire bottom.

 Interestingly, the shop in Bangkok said that the tracing method is much easier than taking a piece apart.  I would assume it's less precise for some reason.

Copy number 1 is in a medium weight cotton:

Copy number 2 in silk Ikat from Bangkok:

Unfortunately I forgot to ask the guys to give me all my scraps.  I am pretty sad about that as I bought 1.5 meters.  Because of the width of the looms, thai silk is always about 1 meter wide, but I am pretty sure there was a lot left over.  The tailor cut on the cross grain to maintain the pattern and I was pleased with his pattern placement on the waistband and pockets.

Final opinion after wear:  I did this in the nick of time!  The waistband on both new versions is too big, but I'm hoping it'll shrink with a wash. It doesn't make them unwearable by any means.  They are of course stiffer than  my aged originals.  This copy project took two days!!  It cost me about $30 per pair, plus about $6 for the brown fabric.  Everything is finished nicely on the insides. I may regret asking for no belt loops because of this - I realised when they ripped that as the originals got looser they hung lower and lower on me, and fit less well. 

Unfortunately I was in a rush when I paid, so I can't tell you who the guys were in Bangkok that made my copies.  If you care, I can give you directions.  They were lovely gentlemen with good English, and they are good enough that they have clients in Switzerland and actually fly there to measure these dudes.  I think they aren't the cheapest out there - so far in Thailand there are sewists literally on every corner but I can't speak for the quality of everyone. 

Glutted on Textiles in Chiang Mai

Enough talking about fabric.  I don't usually take photos of people, of things in shops, or surreptitiously.  But here's the exception: a kaleidoscope of things I saw in Chiang Mai.  The children were all outside the Doi Suthep temple.  Because it was festival time in Chiang Mai, they were out of school and wore their ceremonial dress, possibly to try to get coins from tourists taking their picture.

Too bad I have nowhere to wear this amazing coat...

Hmong dress, modernised!

Silk Ikat, the blue pile.

More on traditional Thai weaving patterns

So in Chiang Mai I found a huge number of shops selling woven items.  Some of them come from the hilltribes in the area: the Lanna, Hmong, Karen, Tin and various other peoples.

The ikat that I discovered earlier is mostly from the silkweaving area around Buriran and Surin.  Other techniques seem to be prevalent in the hilltribes, including layered weaving and sometimes embroidery together with mixed layer weaving and ikat.  Unfortunately the shopowners with most interesting wares tend to speak no English at all.  I found one shop owned by a native English speaker, Adrian, and he was most informative.  His wares included stuff from the SUPPORT project.  From him I learned more about the SUPPORT foundation.  Apparently it is a bidirectional flow of information and products - the Queen supports the industry but to a certain degree modern design and fashion informs what is woven.  So for instance in this amazing tote bag which I just barely avoided buying, ikat is visible in the center, but the beaded decorative spirals are a non-traditional element.

On the other hand, there is Chan.  The owner spoke zero english, but did tell me that these items were made for a runway fashion show!  So this is runway fashion, hilltribe style.  A few of the tops and jackets would be wearable for daily use if you so desired, but the prices are western level, with nothing less than 150$.  (Sorry I was pretty surreptitious with my camera in his little shop.)

In many of the shops older pieces are reused - either by being incorporated into clothing or as decorative elements on bags.  I extrapolate that this is partly because the culture doesn't include as much wastefulness as in the west, but I know from speaking with some of the shop owners that many of these techniques are being lost, so the weavings have value as non-reproducible originals, and I suppose you could call them vintage elements.  One lady explained that the villages use a middleman to sell their weaving in Chiang Mai, so often jackets etc. which have been worn are resold when they aren't needed.  (I tried on an AMAZING jacket made by the Tin people, with bright pink silk embroidery, but it was 200$ and the shopowner wouldn't let me take a photo.)