A model at the 2011 Bangkok International Fashion Fair. Photo: Jason Vega
A government-sponsored fashion show is being revived eight years after it was dumped for becoming a multibillion baht boondoggle.
Intended to bring a global fashion profile to the Thai capital, Bangkok Fashion City was a vanity project initiated in 2003 under the administration of Thaksin Shinawatra with a considerable budget. That is if you consider THB1.8 billion “considerable.” The project was killed in 2006.
This year it will return in a scaled-down fashion with a much smaller budget of THB160 million, according to project manager Virit Viseshsindh.
“We learned our lesson back then, which was pretty much like flushing money down the toilet,” Virit told the Bangkok Post. “We will start out with a small budget and see if we can make it successful.”
The project hopes to garner international attention and promote 2,200 designers while showcasing the fashion haunts of Siam Square, Pratunam, Bobae and Chatuchak.
The president of Thailand’s Footwear Association remains skeptical.
“The government does not understand fashion,” Chianin Jitkomut said, adding that the new budget is too low. ““To be a fashion city is not about holding fashion shows or having the longest catwalk but developing products and people.”
Bangkok Fashion City is one of five projects to stimulate the SME sector this year under the auspices of the Industrial Promotion Department, Bangkok Post reported.
