She was a lawyer, he was a model. Fashion was their passion. Now they make indigo-dyed Philip Huang hipster clothing in Thailand the traditional way
- A couple wanting to get into fashion design were fascinated to see Thai villagers’ skill in teasing brilliant blues out of a vat of leaves and tamarind paste
- Their Philip Huang brand marries artisan-made, natural-dyed fabric with designs inspired by postmodern art and movies, from Luke Skywalker’s coat to Scarface
A key element of a trendy Thai-made clothing brand aimed at affluent customers abroad originates in clay pots of foamy sludge that look like witches’ brews.
The vats are in villages in the agricultural heartland of Thailand in the country’s rural northeast, hundreds of kilometres away from where the clothes are designed in Bangkok by a husband-and-wife team under their own fashion label, called Philip Huang after the husband.
The key element is indigo, a natural pigment derived by fermenting leaves of the Indigofera tinctoria shrub, known locally as khram in Sakon Nakhon province. Many villagers, especially older women, still employ age-old methods to make homespun, indigo-dyed clothes worn for back-breaking work in rice paddies.
“When I think of indigo, I think of water buffaloes and farmers dressed in blue with their palm leaf hats,” says label co-founder Chomwan Weeraworawit. A Thai woman from Bangkok, she grew up in London, studied law and specialised in intellectual property in the textile industry before embracing her true passion: fashion design.
Her husband, Philip, is a New Yorker born to Taiwanese parents who made a name for himself in the industry as a trailblazing Asian-American male model, working with Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger and other leading fashion houses.
