Bonjour Bangkok: Wila’s quirky and whimsical prints

I have had a love affair with prints for longer than I can remember! So much so that if you open my closet, the majority of the pieces I own and cherish are those with unique prints. I just find it amusing what inspires a designer to develop a certain print and how the outcome relates to the initial concept.

While London is arguably THE capital for quirky prints– whether from established designers like Paul Smith, Alexander McQueen and Matthew Williamson to more recent upcoming labels like Basso and Brooke, Mary Katrantzou and Antoni and Alison – Bangkok on the other hand could as well be Asia’s prints capital.

The first label to ever catch my eye from the Thai capital is ISSUE – a label I absolutely adore for their unusual tribal-inspired prints. But as I visited lately, more and more designers seem to have followed in the footsteps of ISSUE and are coming up with cool designs which may as well look at home in London.

One such label is Wila, whose boutique I stumbled upon last summer while looking around Terminal21, the latest hip fashion destination in the city.

Owls and Alpaca! Cute and original prints are something BKK-based
Wila does to perfection!

Bonjour Bangkok: The end of the world at Nisa and Friends

One of the greatest joys I get from this blog is getting to discover kick ass new designers from Singapore and across south-east Asia.

There’s so much talent out there and nothing gives me greater pleasure than doing a tiny bit to help expose them to a slightly wider audience.

So it’s is no surprise that the highlight of my recent trip to Bangkok was stumbling over a humble genius, whose label and shop was launched just over a month ago.

Walking through one of the alleys of Siam Square, a tiny shop space crammed to bursting point with a rainbow of colourful printed scarves called out to me, beckoning me over by standing out from the rows of generic identikit clothes on offer.

The shop was called Nisa – and it was my immense fortune that one of the designers, Namwan (Sirintra), was inside and only too happy talk about her new baby.

This Ocean Symphony dress was my first pick... love it!!!