The spring and summer 2013 collection of women and men’s fashions from Tube Gallery is a first-time collaboration between the Gallery and Bangkok-based Belgian artist Christian Develter. This partnership has yielded a fun and vibrant collection with eye-catching colors and lines.
Coconuts Bangkok talked with Christian Develter, and his business partner Peter Smits, about the inspirations for the show and the different styles from which the designers drew to put together the collection.
Coconuts Bangkok: Is this your first time collaborating with fashion designers?
Peter Smits: Yes, and we wouldn’t think about working with anyone else except Saxit & Phisit.
It all happened very organically, so to speak. Saxit mentioned at a friend’s place he would be interested to collaborate with Christian using the bright colors he’s well know for.
When both Saxit and Phisit came to the studio, we showed them our latest series and explained the philosophy behind it. They immediately picked up on the idea and independently came up with their own interpretation of our work. For example, Phisit came up with the brilliant idea to add butterflies, thus referring to the jungle where the tribes actually live. The design of the wings resembles tattoos. So thus, a collaboration between art, fashion and anthropology came into being.
CB: What was the style inspiration?
Christian Develter: We named our series “Chin, Urban & Tribal.” “Urban” refers to a contemporary take on the tattoos – Asian, urban faces in perfect symmetry adorned with the tattoos – and ” Tribal” is a homage to the tribes and their traditions.
A woman in Bangkok – not even a two-hour flight from here to Chin state – is not that different from a tribal lady who has a tattoo. It’s about beauty, but in essence also about empowering themselves. A tattooed woman sees her status in the tribe elevated and commands respect. A lady with well-done makeup commands the attention of men – and women – in her environment as well. There’s not much difference if you start thinking about it.
CB: Was it easy to fuse your ideas together?
PS: Yes, it was almost a natural process. Christian is a fashion designer from the renowned Antwerp Academy himself but did not interfere with the whole process at all. So there was a lot of mutual respect and understanding.
If ever a collaboration went smoothly, this is the one. We are very pleased with the result and couldn’t do it better even if we wanted to. Tube gets inspired by our work and vice versa. It’s all about creating beauty and making people happy.
We, for a start, are not finished. This is just the beginning of a whole new series and it’s an ongoing process.
Christian’s paintings are huge and take weeks to finish, so he’s still got a lot of work ahead of him.
Tube Gallery stores are located at the 3rd Floor of Siam Center and the 1st Floor of Siam Paragon
