Bangkok Rides A Whirlwind Of Fads, Pop Culture

[george]

Bangkok rides a whirlwind of fads, pop culture

BANGKOK: -- To the untrained eye, the Au Bon Pain at J Avenue, a strip mall on Soi Thonglor in Bangkok, doesn't look like much. On a recent evening, a group of university students in jeans and studded belts were "studying" their textbooks and showing off their new cellphones. At another table, four office types were examining floor plans. A mother brought her children in for snacks. A young woman quietly smoked a cigarette.

It could have been any Au Bon Pain in any mini-mall in any city on the planet. But this, according to Krissanaphong Kiattisak, was the epicenter of creativity in Bangkok.

And Kris, as everyone calls him, should know better than perhaps anyone in this city of 5.6 million people. He's the editor in chief of Wallpaper* Thailand, the new spin-off of the international design bible, and this cafe, a wide-open place that feeds the see-and-be-seen hip residents, has become something of a second office to him and his staff.

A group of young men with stylish black glasses sat down outside and waved through the plate-glass window at Krissanaphong.

"We know everybody," he said, smiling.

These days in Bangkok, "everybody" is a significantly larger group than it once was. The people you meet at parties, clubs and cafes seem to be graphic designers, or architects, or fashion photographers, or producers of TV commercials and short films. What's more, their influence is starting to be felt far beyond the borders of Thailand.

Art films by the directors Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Apichatpong Weerasethakul are winning acclaim and awards at international festivals.

Tony Jaa, an action star, is being touted as the next Jackie Chan for his balletic stunts in films such as Ong Bak. Thai advertising is considered the most innovative in Asia.

Architecture and interior design, too, have come a long way from the mid-'90s, when a skyscraper that was built to look like a white elephant was the most famous (or infamous) mark on Bangkok's skyline. Now a new, subtler generation of architects has come to the fore.

And aspiring decorators no longer have to import housewares from Italy or looted antiquities from Cambodian temples. Thai companies such as Propaganda are establishing themselves as equals to Alessi, with reliably whimsical products.

But the heart of all this innovation remains Bangkok, and Soi Thonglor in particular. (Sois are the numbered alleys branching off Bangkok's main streets.) Leave J Avenue to explore Thonglor, and you'll be assaulted not by Bangkok traffic but by innumerable design showrooms advertising such brands as Flos, Cappellini and Kartell.

At one end of Thonglor, you'll hit Sukhumvit Road, which is lined with Bangkok's most upmarket malls, and at the other you'll discover H1, a modest but sleek collection of businesses: an ice-cream parlor, two restaurants, a club, an art-book store and a furniture showroom. In between these points are more shopping centers frequented by both expats and wealthy Thais, as well as hip pubs such as Escudo and Red Bar.

"A year ago, it was nothing but wedding shops, but now it's grown into a fashion extravaganza," says Joshua Phillips, 23, an American with wild blond hair who runs the comprehensive shopping-and-night-life Web site Bangkok Recorder.com. "Will it be a success? Yes. Because condos are ridiculously expensive, so Hi-So types" – high-society, that is – "are moving into the area. And where will they spend money?"

The most recent answer to that urgent question is a three-story black-slate mini-mall called Playground! Open since late March, Playground! is, according to its developer, Thailand's first concept store, modeled after shops such as Colette, in Paris, where a selective collection of high-end housewares, clothing, CDs and art books is displayed.

At Playground!, on the shelves and racks surrounding a sun-filled atrium, you find Mandarina Duck luggage and rebuilt jeans by the Thai label Medium-Rare, Pantone notebooks and dangly ethnic necklaces from Kit-Ti's Jewelry. The top floor has two restaurants, an art gallery and an auditorium.

The ground floor has what may be Bangkok's biggest selection of international magazines, along with a music shop where you can pick up a concept-store essential: the Playground! signature CD, a Buddha Bar-like DJ mix.

Playground! and Soi Thonglor are only the most obvious evidence of Bangkok's new attention to design and creativity. The bars and clubs at RCA (Royal City Avenue) have undergone a makeover, transforming themselves from dark and cheap rooms into lively, raucous spaces.

RCA is also home to the House, a wood-paneled cinema that shows indie and art films from around the world but available nowhere else in Thailand.

Likewise, Siam Square, a dense warren of boutiques, cafes and salons on Sukhumvit Road, is coming into its own, with an invigorating mix of fashions ranging from chic to disposable.

But Bangkok's creative revolution is not being fought solely in shopping centers. In market areas, you're likely to find as many brightly colored cafes as dingy but excellent noodle stalls.

The recent emphasis on design and beauty, many people told me, has a homegrown catalyst: the economic crisis of 1997-98, which devalued the baht, making it more difficult for young people to study abroad, raising the price of foreign products and clearing away an older generation of creative professionals.

My theory, however, is that the current wave of hyperconscious aestheticism is a subconscious reaction to the often wonderful ugliness of Bangkok's streets. At the end of Sukhumvit Soi 11, for example, you will run into what looks like a gleaming white UFO on stilts. Walk up its boarding ramp and – assuming the doorman lets you in – you'll discover the Bed Supperclub, whose well-dressed, well-heeled patrons recline on white mattresses and munch on Asian-Mediterranean cuisine. It's the standard of hipness in Bangkok.

Bed's opening three years ago is widely seen as the beginning of the current epidemic of Thai innovation. Bed Supperclub is a spinoff of Miami's B.E.D., and now Bangkok is home to the exclusive, celebrity-stuffed Japanese restaurant Koi, which originated in Los Angeles.

"A lot of the Hollywood fashion themes that are really in New York and Hollywood amazingly come to Thailand first," Tata Young, a Thai-American pop star, told me in the offices of her label, Sony BMG.

She brandished a blue leather Balenciaga bag that she claimed was unavailable anywhere but Bangkok.

Balenciaga notwithstanding, there remain certain things that you can't find in Thailand. For instance: bars that stay open late.

Since last March, most Bangkok bars and clubs have been required by law to shut at 1 a.m., a measure the government says will curb youth drug and alcohol abuse and improve Thailand's image. Similarly, the Thai music scene is underdeveloped. Tata is about the only local pop singer to have achieved a measure of stardom abroad (mostly in Asia), possibly because the rest of the mainstream is populated with interchangeably sweet boys and girls.

Bangkok does have a thriving indie scene. Such labels as Small Room and Panda Records are cultivating a mix of rock, punk, lounge and electronica that caters to a subculture known as dek naew.

The thing is, it's hard to find a place to see any group live. Eastbound-downers.com and Thaipoppers.com publish late-breaking announcements of club dates, but if you hear Sek Loso or Modern Dog, it will most likely be on radio or CDs.

Another problem hampering Bangkok's creative development is the population's addiction to fads. Even some of the hippest places on Soi Thonglor have trouble maintaining their appeal. Playground! occasionally borders on empty.

No one I spoke with could agree on the life cycle of a bar or boutique, but it was never more than four years, and usually closer to two.

At the same time, that trendiness means something new and cool is always just over the horizon.

When you go

WHERE TO STAY

The Metropolitan, 27 S. Sathorn Road, 011-66-2-625-3333, www.metropolitan.como.bz. Chicest boutique hotel in town. Doubles from $240.

Reflections, 81 Soi Ari, Phaholyothin 7 Road, 011-66-2-270-3344, www.reflections-thai.com. Cheaper and quirkier, but a little out of the way. Rates from $51.

WHERE TO SHOP

Playground!, 946/4 Soi Thonglor. Contact: 011-66-2-714-9616; www.playgroundstore.co.th.

H1, 988/7 Soi Thonglor. Contact: 011-66-2-391-9815; basheergraphic.com.

Siam Square. Tough to navigate. Look for: Issue, hipster fashions, 266/10 Siam Square Soi 3; It's Happened to Be a Closet, faux-vintage women's wear, 266/3 Siam Square, Soi 3; and DJ Siam, innovative Thai rock, etc. on CD, 292/16 Siam Square Soi 4, 011-66-2-251-2513.

Pim Sukhahuta's Sretsis store at Gaysorn Plaza, 2F-28, 999 Ploenchit Road. Contact: 011-66-2-656-1125; sretsis.com.

Siam Center. Branches of Greyhound (Thailand's French Connection), Jaspal (Thailand's Gap) and Fly Now (Thailand's Scoop).

Emporium, 622 Sukhumvit Soi 24, fourth floor, www.propagandaonline.com. Chichi mall.

WHERE TO EAT

Spring and Summer, 199 Soi Promsri 2, Sukhumvit soi 39, 011-66-2-392-2747. Thai food, glam setting not far from Soi Thonglor. About $48 for two.

Le Lys, 75/2 Langsuan Soi 3, 011-66-2-652-2401. Baby clams a must. For two, $48.

Greyhound Cafes, where stylish mallgoers lunch. At Emporium, Central Chidlom and J Avenue. About $9.50 per person.

In the Soi Ari area, the restaurant at Reflections (about $24 for two) and Pla Dib, Soi Areesamphan 7, (about $30 for two).

To eat like a local, the street is the place. Every night on Sukhumvit Soi 38, at the foot of Soi Thonglor, scores of vendors sell delicious, inexpensive fare.

WHERE TO DRINK

Bed Supperclub, 26 Sukhumvit Soi 11, 011-66-2-651-3537, www.bedsupperclub.com. If you can't get dinner reservations – and you probably won't – pop by for a drink and to gawk. Glass of wine: $6

Astra, 29/53-64 Soi Soonvijai, Rama 9 Road, 011-66-9-497-8422. www.club-astra.com. If you need to dance.

70's Bar, 231/16 Soi Sarasin, www.70sbar.com. Disco. Unusual retro-Thai experience.

Freeman, 60/18-21 Silom Road, 011-66-2-632-8033. Around midnight, the boys put on a nightly drag spectacular.

--The New York Times 2006-01-06