Frivolous Universe

Archive
Tag "Asia Street Style"

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.

 

Comments

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

Comments

Kim Philley Frivolous Universe FU Bangkok Asia Street Style ASS Vanessa Boots Preah Vinhear Thailand teal green jeans

Even in the land of eternal resort season, I’m beginning to feel a tipple of spring. Perhaps it’s a side effect of too much nibbling on the tall side of the mushroom, or perhaps it’s these teal green jeans (Russian Market, Phnom Penh). Here I am on Saturday, crawling through the third gopura at Preah Vihear. Preah Vihear temple is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The last I heard, UNESCO doesn’t award World Heritage status to dollhouses.

And, yes, those are Gizeh Birkenstocks–if it’s good enough for Chloë Sevigny, it’s good enough for me.

Kim Philley Frivolous Universe FU Bangkok Asia Street Style ASS Vanessa Boots Preah Vinhear Thailand teal green jeans

Unlike last Tuesday’s FU post, none of these images have been filtered, iPhotoed, or Photoshopped–who has the time for digital tomfoolery when Pedro is visiting? I tell you, that mustachioed Mexican wears me out! It all started when the kid on the Sukhumvit #511 bus asked, What are you gonna do today, Napoleon? And I said,

Nagess, Frivolous Universe, Vanessa Boots, FU, tiny Preah Vihear, nagas

Whatever I feel like I wanna do. Gosh!  I’d been doing too much of this at the office all week:

Kim Philley Frivolous Universe FU street style Asia Street Style Bangkok Thailand

It was high time I hightailed it to the Teal Green Land!

Kim Philley, Frivolous Universe, Bangkok, C&C California, teal jeans, asia street style, street style

And nothing augurs of the Ides of March like a pair of teal trousers. Mila Keln agrees:

Kim Philley Frivolous Universe FU, street fashion, A.L.C., Alexander Wang, spring is on its way, teal green, pants

A.L.C. Dot School Girl Sweater / A.L.C. Jasper Pants / Alexander Wang Liya High Heel Pumps

Kim Philley, Frivolous Universe, Asia street style, Thailand, teal green

If Alice in Wonderland has taught me anything, it’s to always carry a drug to counter the effects of drugs and that a subtly slutty outfit can take you anywhere. Just when I thought I couldn’t crawl through one more keyhole without wearing out my teal knees, I nipped from my little vial called Normalcy™. As luck would have it, I’d built up a tolerance.

Kim Philley Frivolous Universe Bangok Thailand, things that cannot be explained, FU

I’ve seen an ogress or two in my day. But if you know the backstory on this one, please email me.

Kim Philley, Frivolous Universe, business cards, Hanuman

It’s hard not to get dragged into the Ramayana. Especially when Hanuman sends you postcards.

Vanessa Boots, Kim Philley, Frivolous Universe, FU, Hanuman, Bangkok, Thailand

Pedro’s black blouse: new store called Colors in Phnom Penh; Vest & Pants: No Tag, Beong Kang Kong market, Phnom Penh; Sexy shoes: replica of the original pair from ALDO, custom-made at Beautiful Shoes, Phnom Penh; weighted silk necklace, Phnom Penh; earrings: street stall near Lumphini MRT, exit 1, Bangkok

Kim Philley, Frivolous Universe, Vanessa Boots, FU, street style, teal green jeans, Bangkok street style, Thaiand

After the diminutive dangers of Preah Vihear, I was ill-prepared for epic battle with my astrological sign!

I don’t know which one I fancy more: if China jade and teal green would duke it out for Top Dawg, it would be a showdown worthy of Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns!

Frivolous Universe, FU, Bangkok, street style, teal green, China jade, jade, floating village

Frivolous Universe, FU, Jim Thompson's House, Bangkok, Thailand, Asia Street Style, Thai street style, teal green pants, mens fashion

Jim Thompson vanished without a trace into the teal-leafed Cameroonian Highlands. I think he would have loved this flash-of-teal menswear spotted at Bangkok’s Jim Thompson House.

Kim Philley, Frivolous Universe, C&C California, FU, Chinese apothecary, Thailand, Bangkok, street style, teal green

There had been a run on Normalcy™ at the apothecary; nothing left but blister packs of Insanity ™

Floral blouse: C&C California

Even Thai schoolboys feel the teal.

Kim Philley & Vanessa Boots Mini Preah Vihear, Frivolous Universe, FU, teal green, Thailand

Napoleon Dynamite to Pedro: Just follow your heart. That’s what I do. And thanks for the sweet photographs! Next time you come to Bangkok, I’ll catch you a delicious sea bass.

Comments