Want to look like a local in Thailand? Don’t wear ‘elephant pants’
- When in Bangkok, you’ll likely be able to spot tourists from a mile away by the trousers they’re probably wearing
- And there’s no better choice, if what you want is for your outfit to scream ‘I’m a foreign backpacker’ at the locals
Fashion is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to elephant patterned trousers.
The so-called elephant pants are rarely worn by local Thais, but these light and breezy trousers can be found in abundance in tourist areas such as along the pubs and hostels of Bangkok’s Khaosan road, once made famous by the 2000 film The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
There, they’re a phenomenon worn by a near majority of tourists during the day, when they are sold on the sides of the street for as little as 150 baht each (US$4.90) each.
Shopkeeper Sawat Daengurai said he has been selling clothes on Khaosan road for about a decade, however. Sales only started picking up when he began to sell the elephant pants around three years ago.
“I used to sell tank tops here but the elephant pants are more popular,” he said. “I started selling them later than everyone else.”