fashion in Thailand

The two women sitting are a mother and daughter at a party last weekend--pretty typical of two types of fashion I notice here: nonsense English words on tee-shirts for the young, and lovely tops using beautifully woven fabrics, often on the bias.

The silk suit is on Maneerat, a lovely English teacher (wife of Ajahn Burim, my first music teacher here). It was one of the school celebration days.

The clothes seem so flattering. Obviously it helps to be a tiny Thai woman--

I do see women my size, and often beautifully dressed. I'm not sure how they do it, maybe with a tailor. I have seen very little in my size in stores.
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The patterns are from a magazine that comes out monthly. This is an old one (I've copied several old issues from Boom's collection, will bring them to share); I've also bought the latest edition of the magazine (they're always mostly crochet patterns), will check out each month's issue while I'm here.

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This was the candle-making ceremony, in preparation for taking the candle to the temple. Many of the women wore beautiful dresses, as this embroidered one.

I've taken lots of photos, for future reference and certainly to share. I keep being impressed by the fun Thai people have in tastefully showing off for their friends. Not a lot of make-up, not much for high heels, never nylon stockings--my kind of dressing up!

Even though the magazines show patterns in detail, I haven't met a single person who sews, except Boom who likes to crochet bags and sews inner linings for them. There are tailors who will do mending, alterations, sewing to order. The women also don't cook, as good food is so readily available and inexpensive. Again Boom is the exception, as she is a cook in her own restaurant, often floats over to her friend's restaurant and cooks there. I have no idea how they keep track of expenses...

I also don't know yet how much such fashions cost. I haven't looked around much, will hope to do more shopping in the months to come.