Frivolous Universe

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Vanessa Boots, Kim Philley, white corset, happycorset.com, Terminal 21, Bangkok, Thai fashion, Asia Street Style, Bangkok street style, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, tutu, Tibetan breastplate

He saw corsets, corsets, corsets, corsets, corsets, corsets, corsets, corsets.

Do you know how to pony?  Like bony maroney.

Do you know how to twist? Well it goes like this, it goes like this:

Marilyn Monroe, Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Pedro, corsets, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, fit to be tied, Asia Street Style, Thai fashion, Bangkok fashion, Bangkok street style, Terminal 21 shopping mall, Tokyo floor, www.happycorsets.com

It’s 10pm in Bangkok and, rest assured, I haven’t eaten dinner, I’m blogging from a shopping mall, and I’m rocking a neoprene wrist support on my right mouse-clicker (back in the olden days they called them ‘hands’). The mall rat smack has hit my veins and it sounds a lot like Patti Smith singing horses, horses, horses, horses.

But Bangkok’s new Terminal 21 shopping mall — each floor themed after a different international city — exerts a loopy alchemy. Suddenly I get the feeling I’m being surrounded by corsets, corsets, corsets, corsets!  Perhaps I’m paranoid. Or perhaps Pedro and I have lingered a little too long on the Tokyo floor, home of happycorset.com:

Marilyn Monroe, Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Pedro, corsets, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, fit to be tied, Asia Street Style, Thai fashion, Bangkok fashion, Bangkok street style, Terminal 21 shopping mall, Tokyo floor, www.happycorsets.com

My figure has been more Smith than Monroe as of late. All I do is work; my ass is beginning to take the shape of my cheap, sunken office chair. No offense to Patti, but I’m over being a gay man’s muse.

Kim Philley, Patti Smith, Horses, Vanessa Boots, Frivolous Universe, Asia Street Style, street fashion, Terminal 21, Bangkok, Thai fashion

Part of my family’s lore is a story about my great-grandfather wanting to get some sleep after a long day’s work. He stumbled into the bedroom he shared with my great-grandmother. When he saw all his wife’s ‘underthings’ strewn about the room, her corset included, he barked, ‘Gracie, get those women off of my bed!’

I want my women back. I want hips like María Félix when I don my little black dress.

Maria Felix, the little black dress, La Dona, Vanessa Boots, Kim Philley, Frivolous Universe, street style, FU

For this week’s post I found a beautiful woman with a gorgeous figure to fill my size-10 shoes. Don’t let the name Pedro dissuade you. ‘He’ is definitely 100% La Doña. Pedro looks smokin’ in his Happy Corset. And that Tibetan breastplate sure don’t hurt — a dramarama accessory I believe FU has singlehandedly put back on the fashion map.

Marilyn Monroe, Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Pedro, corsets, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, fit to be tied, Asia Street Style, Thai fashion, Bangkok fashion, Bangkok street style, Terminal 21 shopping mall, Tokyo floor, www.happycorsets.com

Black corset: Happy Corset, Tokyo Floor, Terminal 21, Bangkok

Tibetan breastplate: Bethany Walter’s fabulous online jewelry store, Armor Bijoux

Copper bracelet: The Gold Mine, Ketchum, Idaho

Strappy heels: Geez, Pedro — where’d ya get those sweet heels? Fill me in when you got a sec.

Marilyn Monroe, Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Pedro, corsets, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, fit to be tied, Asia Street Style, Thai fashion, Bangkok fashion, Bangkok street style, Terminal 21 shopping mall, Tokyo floor, www.happycorsets.com

How have we gone from ooh la la guitarra to Victoria’s Secret in 50-odd years? It must have been the Fin de siècle.

Heidi Klum & VIctoria's Secret 'Angels', Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, Asian Street Style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion

Thank God there’s a burlesque dancer to redeem us all: the mermaid-pale, azure-corseted Dita Von Teese:

Dita Von Teese corset jewelled pastel (Kim Philley for FU), Vanessa Boots, corsets, subtly slutty, Asian Street Style, Bangkok fashion, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, Frivolous Universe, fashion

Well color me purple. Next time I draw you a Liger, Pedro, I’ll make it all Gotham-like. Ligers are like a lion and tiger mixed — bred for its skills in magic. Just like mating an antique Tibetan breastplate with a cheap Bangkok corset. Same species, Pedro.

Dita Von Teese corset jewTerminal 21, shopping malls Bangkok, happycorset.com, Tibetan breastplate, (Kim Philley for FU), Vanessa Boots, corsets, subtly slutty, Asian Street Style, Bangkok fashion, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, Frivolous Universe, fashion

Dear Pedro (a.k.a. Vanessa Boots),

Thanks again for all the sweet hook-ups and for letting me be a lazy blogger. If you don’t come back to visit soon I’m going to have to grow some T&A along with a midnight work ethic. I’m just so tired — gosh!

Peace out,

Napoleon

Photographer: Vanessa Boots, Kim Philley, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, Bangkok fashion, Thai street style, corsets, Terminal 21 shopping mall, happycorsets.com

Photographs by Vanessa Boots (a.k.a. Pedro) and the bemused shop girl at www.happycorsets.com

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Bangkok is to food as the Kentucky Derby is to mint juleps. If your well runs dry, it ain’t nobody’s fault but your own. Here I am at my favorite food stall on Soi 38, buggin’ like a skinny meth man. It’s 11pm at night and this coconut shake is the first bit of sustenance to cross my lips since my breakfast noodles.

Kim Philley, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailor, white pants, Hoi An, street style, Asia Street Style, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, street food, AXARA Pairs, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, J.Crew Cece flat, Dooney & Burke bag, Fly No

I’ve been working carpal-tunnel inducing hours, and I let myself get shanghaied into pinch-hosting an evening poetry reading. I worked through lunch. I skipped dinner. Blood sugar in your shoes? Who the f^%k cares — as long as they’re velvet.

Kim Philley, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailor, white pants, Hoi An, street style, Asia Street Style, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, AXARA Paris, poetry, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, J.Crew Cece flat, Dooney & Burke bag, Fly No

Dress: AXARA Paris

Gold and pearl earrings: Norma Puga (Margot, Mexico City)

Kim Philley, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailor, white pants, Hoi An, street style, Asia Street Style, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, J.Crew Cece flat, Dooney & Burke bag, Fly No

Pre-street food I got really kvetchy, and then I almost fainted. It took the coconut shake ( + duck noodle soup + som tam + mango avec sticky rice) to restore me to meaning and to sense. I looked around and then it occurred to me: f^%kin A, I’m in Bangkok!

Kim Philley, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailors, Hoi An, white linen pants, Bangkok, street style, Asia Street Style, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, Memorial Bridge, Bangkok, Thailand, Thai street fashion, Thai fashion, Frivolous Universe, fashion, J. Crew Cece ballet flats, Dooney & Burke, Fly Now

F^%k tight polyester-blend dresses. F^%k skipping meals. F^%k pinch-hitting. A billion random, portentous things are happening in this city at any given moment. Why is his head wrapped in a red bow? Why does that boom mic look like a fuzzy dildo? What the F are they filming? I don’t need to know. I don’t even care. But if I miss one minute of it because I’m off somewhere being ‘proper,’ doing as I feel duty-bound, I’m gonna regret it.
Kim Philley kisses Ryan Gosling AND George Clooney, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailor, white pants, Hoi An, street style, Asia Street Style, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, J.Crew Cece flat, Dooney & Burke bag, Fly No

It’s time for a threesome with Ryan Gosling and George Clooney. It’s time to go nuts in an elaborate mock-up; to match my teal jeans to my diorama. It’s time yet for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions . . . . In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

Kim Philley Frivolous Universe 'Teal green is not jade green!', Bangkok, pastel jeans, C&C California, teal green, spring 2012, jade green, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU

Kim Philley, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailor, white pants, Hoi An, street style, Asia Street Style, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, J.Crew Cece flats

Do I dare disturb the universe? There’s only one thing to do on ‘Prapa’ Street. (Note the posh accent, bitches.) Jump up on the bridge-over-the-stinky-klong railing. Strike a pose. Make sure you’re rockin’ a María Félix t-shirt. If you’re going straight to hell, rest assured it’s always Ladies’ Night.

Maria Felix, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, Frivolous Universe, Kim Philley, Mexican film stars, Mexico's great lady, La Dona

Doña Diabla

Kim Philley Salvador Dali, Maria Feliz, white linen pants, Bangkok, street style, Asia Street Style, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, Frivolous Universe, fashion

Why settle for mild-mannered Clark Kent when you can be Salvador Dali? Where I am it’s always summertime, and the living should be easy. Pedro smuggled my María Félix shirt all the way from Mexico City to Bangkok via the usual cartel route — Kampuchea. The rose petal, like me, was a refugee from Valentine’s Day. And the gold-leafed earrings set me back 20 baht (about 70 cents) at a street stall near Lumphini MRT.

Kim Philley, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailor, white pants, Hoi An, street style, Asia Street Style, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, J.Crew Cece flat, Dooney & Burke bag, Fly Now

White linen pants: Pin-Pin (my favorite tailor in Hoi An, Vietnam)

Belt: FlyNow (Bangkok)

Handbag: good ol’ Dooney & Burke

Kim Philley, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailor, white pants, Hoi An, street style, Asia Street Style, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, J.Crew Cece flat, Dooney & Burke bag, Fly No

It is impossible to say just what I mean! I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas. Shoulds and more shoulds are all you get for time served on Prapa Street. Below: I am wearing incredibly comfy hidden-wedge J. Crew Cece suede ballet flats in Mulberry to match Maria’s lips.

Kim Philley, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailors, Hoi An, white linen pants, Bangkok, street style, Asia Street Style, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, Frivolous Universe, fashion, J. Crew Cece ballet flats, Dooney & Burke, Fly Now

Kim Philley, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailors, Hoi An, white linen pants, Bangkok, street style, Asia Street Style, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, Frivolous Universe, fashion, pork knuckle, J. Crew Cece ballet flats, Dooney & Burke, Fly Now

Is it this dainty pork knuckle that makes me so digress?

Kim Philley, Maria Feliz, Vietnamese tailors, Hoi An, white linen pants, Bangkok, street style, Asia Street Style, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, Frivolous Universe, fashion, J. Crew Cece ballet flats, Dooney & Burke, Fly Now, Vanessa Boots, J. Crew t-shirt, Pedro

PS: VOTE FOR PEDRO. He gets me all my sweet shots.

 

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It’s Sunday, and I’m continuing my spring-green obsession at my favorite place in the world, Wat Pho. The raised, gilded threshold? To keep the slithering spirits out.
Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

Sexy yet comfy wedges: Nurture, baby

Too little

has been said

of the door, its one

face turned to the night’s

downpour and its other

to the shift and glisten of firelight.

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

The Tao of Bangkok is that Soi Cowboy and centuries-old spirituality coexist in the same gracious/salacious city. In Bangkok, even Ronald McDonald offers a respectful wai — the Thai greeting of placing one’s palms together in a gesture of prayer. And the signage on public transportation reminds us to give it up to the monks among us who renounce all this seductive claptrap I love to yack about. I’m talking to you: Le Big Mac!

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion Ronald, meet Pedro.

Blouse: BCBG Max Azria

Purse: Ipa-nima (fabulous up-and-coming Vietnamese designer — check her out!)

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

There are many things I will never understand about Wat Pho, including this sign. Nevertheless, when I spy a shaved-head Israeli in Rayban aviators, I quickly cross to the other side of the spirit threshold. Whether it’s marketing collateral or Iranian bomb collateral, I get my full threat at work.

Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

Wat Pho, Bangkok’s oldest and largest temple, is a Thai wunderkammer – a cabinet of curios filled with medical and religious marvels, as well as a curious collection of 19th-century Chinese statuary and scrappy, somnolent temple cats.

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion How Gollum got here is anybody’s guess. Since we were well into the 20th c. before he sprung from Tolkien’s brow, this statue goes to show that past, present, and future exist simultaneously — that we experience their separation is only an illusion, Einstein wrote, although a convincing one.

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

Necklace: Lapis and gold. A gift from my father to my mother. I still have the receipt: January 16th, 1989; Uthai’s Gems off Ploenchit Road

Green-and-white onsie: Ett Twa for Anthropologie

Terra cotta cotton cardigan: J.Crew

Leather bag: Dooney & Burke 

Foo dog in need of red-eye reduction: Wat Pho

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

In Southeast Asia they don’t give a toss about ‘what’s your sign?’ What matters is the day of the week you were born. The teal green oxen symbolize Thursday. I may be Tuesday’s blogger, but I am Thursday’s child.

Monday’s child is fair of face

Tuesday’s child is full of grace,

Wednesday’s child is full of woe,

Thursday’s child has far to go,

Friday’s child is loving and giving,

Saturday’s child works hard for a living,

But the child who is born on the Sabbath day

Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

Definitely a Sunday’s child — both of them!

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

It’s peaceful on the other side, and there’s a lot of green, including Pedro’s jade and gold ring (my mother bought this ring in Bangkok in the 1970s), and the mirrored base of one of Wat Pho’s myriad sitting Buddhas.

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

Gold-leafed jingle-jangle earrings: morning street stall near Lumphini MRT, exit 1. Cost: 20 baht (less than $1).

For me, an afternoon at Wat Pho always ends with watching the sunset off Tha Thien pier. Waiting on the express boat. Sipping on coconut juice and soda water.

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

The planking craze has hit the Chao Phraya.

 Kim Philley, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asia Street Style, green for spring 2012, Anthropologie, Ett Twa, Dooney & Burke, J. Crew, Nurture, wedge sandals, Bangkok style, fashion

For doors

are both frame and monument

to our spent time,

and too little

has been said

or our coming through and leaving by them.

Charles Tomlinson

 

Photos by Vanessa Boots

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