In 2008, my wife and I adopted a 10 year old girl from Thailand. She is now 12 and just received a gift of a traditional Thai dress. After some searching on the internet, I believe the style is Thai Chakkraphat. The problem is the dress did not come with instructions on how to put it on. We have some Thai friends here in the US, but no one knows how to do it. The dress has three pieces: a long, golden skirt, a white pleated shawl and a gold design shawl. From the picture I saw on the 'net, the pleated shawl wraps around her top and falls over her left shoulder. The design shawl wraps over the pleated shawl. It's not clear how the pleated shawl stays in place, nor what keeps the design shawl from falling off.

Can anyone help?

Hmmm, I have been put into one of these myself and although it didn't seem that complex in terms of the way it was draped, it needed various stretegically placed pins in it to keep it all from sliding off.

Is there no older Thai ladies you could root out? Thai restaurant perhaps? Am sure they would love to help - dressing little girls up in these outfits is a national pastime (along with copious amounts of make up and hair spray!).

I will have a chat with my friend tonight and see if she has a foolproof method...