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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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A large part of Bangkok is, to quote Beck, shopping malls coming out of the walls. And then there are the street stalls. And then there’s Nana Chen.

Kim Philley, Nana Chen, Frivolous Universe, Asia Street Style, Bangkok, street clothing, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, J. Crew

Lady Luck, happenstance, lot, pluck, providence–whatever you choose to call it, my first Friday night in Bangkok I got lost in a freight elevator with Nana Chen. Nana is a Saigon/Bangkok-based photographer with an exceptional eye for portraiture. She has a fashion blog called Asia Street Style (ASS). I blog for Frivolous Universe (FU). If that isn’t a match made in a stalled freight elevator, I don’t know what is.

Kim Philley, Asia Street Style, Nana Chen photographer, Frivolous Universe, Bangkok, FU, J. Crew, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, subtlely sexy

On Sunday, to initiate me into the city of cheap thrills, Nana trotted out her collection of subtly-slutty faux-lace: tiny, tatted Matador jackets, Chantilly-esque trenchcoats, and ultra-feminine DayGlo ballerina-necked cotton tops. Turns out she had purchased them all for a pittance–150 Thai Baht or under $5 USD–at her local Silom street stall.

Kim Philley, Nana Chen, Asia Street Style, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Bangkok, street clothing

I love the detailing on this top–so much romance for under five dollars! And all I had to do was slip it over my James Perse tank top and my thrifted skirt by Maria Bianca Nero. Nana styled my lacy top for this photoshoot and posted three of these photos yesterday on Asia Street Style. These peekaboo cotton tops get snapped up fast in Bangkok–Pepto-Bismol pink was the only color left when we reached Nana’s favorite clothing stall. The fact that I was already wearing matching Cece ballet flats by J. Crew? Kismet.

Kim Philley, Nana Chen, Asia Street Style, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Bangkok, street clothin

This is my Idaho grandmother’s moonstone necklace. Every now and then it sheds a moonstone like a seven-year-old loses teeth. Despite their translucence, I always manage to find the lost moonstone. Perhaps if I sleep with one under my pillow, the Lime Fairy will come . . . .

Kim Philley, Nana Chen, Asia Street Style, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Bangkok, street clothin

My handbag is Dooney & Bourke, and it’s getting dirty. I could take it to one of Bangkok’s hi-so bag spas for a good shampoo, but I’d rather save my baht for cheap, glorious street clothes. By the way, the above photo is what you look like when, in the Bangkok heat, you reach full-wilt.

Kim Philley, Nana Chen Aisa-based photographer, Asia Street Style, Frivolous Universe, FU, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Bangkok, street clothin

And this is what you look like when you recover! It’s hot here and life moves fast. Sometimes you just have to trust where you are and who you’re with.

To find the faux-lace clothing stall: Take BTS to Sala Deang. Exit 2. Walk along Silom until you reach the junction with Convent. Bring a little baht.

 

 

 

 

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