For those of you who love gorgeous Thai silk, the man to thank is a former architect and American military officer assigned to post war Thailand. He single-handedly revived a silk weaving industry that was on its last legs.He eventually settled here in a gorgeous home and garden nestled in the bustle of Bangkok. He made it from several one-room traditional building knit together skillfully and filled with his antique collection. He disappeared in the Malaysian jungle in 1968 when on vacation and no trace of him has ever been found. The home tour revealed a printing block in the Chinese style that I found fascinating. It was quite large, and you applied paint to it before laying the cloth on it, but the interesting thing was that it had a number of design elements that could be removed and replaced if you wanted to change color in the middle of a printing run.
The shop itself is a high end boutique place now. It reminds me most of Liberty of London, lots of ties, scarves and small gifts, but some lovely fabrics as well. We sneaked a couple of pictures, one of a pashmina shawl that took two years to delicately embroider, and was priced accordingly!
Today we leave for Chiang Mai. More textile adventures coming up there.
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