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ThaiOasis Designer of the Month
Designer Chanita "Lee" Preechawitayakul
Creator of Senada Theory: Anything but Traditional
Khun Lee
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Call her edgy, street-savvy, eclectic, or cutting edge, but don’t call her traditional!
Khun Lee, who has made Senada Theory one of the most interesting design houses in Thailand, incorporates ethnic influences and vintage elements to create an urban look, evoking mood, attitude, and personality.
“In our designs, an old ceramics design becomes exquisite embroidery, grandma’s tablecloth inspires a kitschy dress pattern, and antique textiles are reconstructed into hip streetwear,” she states.
Her customers express a strong individuality, are typically in their 20s-40s, and revel in fashion that, while emphatically Thai, bears little in common with most traditional Thai silk designs found in many tourist-oriented clothing shops.
Lee’s background, somewhat surprisingly, was not originally in fashion.
While her academic background was in biochemical science, her after-work passion was clothing design, and she soon found herself sewing patterns for wedding garments.
At the same time, she began her extensive collection of vintage clothing from the Americas, France, and Thailand, which inspired her to create a line of clothing, which would eventually be featured in significant Thai stores such as Zen and Emporium.
She opened her first Senada Theory store in Siam Centre in 2002, and now operates a flagship store at Gaysorn.
Her Gaysorn store is a design jewel itself, featuring bold vertical transparent sliding panels, acting as frames for the collection, and a non-traditional floor plan that breaks her collection of clothing and accessories into discrete, “closet-like” environments.
Her clothes are inventive pastiches, utilizing batik, embroidery, block printing, and patchwork, and often incorporate actual vintage materials.
She raves about her silk, which she maintains “is softer than traditional Thai silk you’d find in other stores.”
Khun Lee, who is one of the boldest of the “new wave” of Thai designers, is also the secretary of the Bangkok Fashion Society, an organization of small and important houses dedicated to changing the world’s perception of what Thai fashion is all about.
Eschewing elephants, garudas, and predictability, Lee’s fashions are featured in top design stores from London to Milan, Tokyo to Singapore.
In Bangkok, you have the luxury of seeing them in her own high-design environment.
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