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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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Even when you’re scared art is no dictionary. –Frank O’Hara

Kim Philley, Nana Chen, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, asiastreetstyle.blogspot.com, Bangkok, Thailand, fashion, photographer, street style, style blog, Thai fashion

Green Hot Chili Peppers Dress: Street stall next to Sala Deang BTS, Bangkok

I once read an interview with Daniel Craig where he explained why he accepted the hefty mantle of becoming the new James Bond. He didn’t want to be a sad sack in his dotage, Craig said, sitting on a barstool, knocking back the Jameson and saying to everyone and anyone who cared to listen that he could have been Bond.

I moved to Bangkok for the same reason. Because I never wanted to explain to anyone–myself in particular–why I didn’t. When I could have. When I was not yet old and no longer young.

Kim Philley, Nana Chen, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, asiastreetstyle.blogspot.com, Bangkok, Thailand, fashion, photographer, street style, style blog, Thai fashion

Red silk belt: Thrift store, Oxford, UK

For RAISE THE RED LANTERN, Nana Chen of Asia Street Style photographed me at midnight off a not-quite-deserted intersection in Bangkok’s Sathon district. An International Herald Tribune photographer out for a late dinner, tattooed drunks, and the occasional cockroach scuttled by. Bangkok being Bangkok (hard to surprise), none of them paid us much mind.

I picked up the green hot chili peppers dress from one of the Sala Deang street stalls I mentioned in last week’s post, FU MEETS ASIA STREET STYLE. I forgot exactly how much I paid for the dress, but it was under 250 Thai Baht ($8). Nana and I  found the lurid blue-green peppers a little phallic at first blush; both of us agreed that a belt would solve the phallus problem.

Kim Philley, Nana Chen, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, FU, asiastreetstyle.blogspot.com, Bangkok, Thailand, fashion, photographer, street style, style blog, Thai fashion

White leather bracelet: leather accessories street vendor in Shida night market, Taipei

My favorite (& only) black leather bag: this bag has no label; I swear I’ll find the little Bangkok shop again one of these days

Nana also styled me and did my makeup for this shoot (see the bottoms of this post for product details). The nightlight is vintage Southeast Asia–an eerie mix of halogen and Chinese lantern. Chinese New Year has come and gone and now we are left with the Year of the Dragon. Dragon years are volatile to say the least–anything can, and will, happen.

Today I’m housebound with a wretched Bangkok flu. An hour ago I dragged myself down from my apartment, to my local market street, for a chicken-broth resupply. As I walked past the mango lady I heard an obnoxious cacophony of cymbals. I winced. I cursed. I reached for my Tiger Balm. And then I looked up: I was headed straight for the jaws of a dragon.

Kim Philley, Nana Chen, Bangkok, street style, fashion, Thai fashion, FU, asiastreetstyle.blogspot.com, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, DVF, Benetton

Bow-tied wool pencil skirt: Diane Von Furstenberg

Jade windchime earrings: by U.S. jewelry designer Hazel Cox (gift from FU’s Anna Demetraides)

Black plastic bracelet with elastic: H&M, Geneva

Tube top: Benetton, Taipei

Keep in mind this happened on a Tuesday at 11:30am in the middle of nowhere. The “dragon” was comprised of six Thai boys in matching red t-shirts and paper-mache. I put a 20 Baht bill between the monster’s fangs and watched him go on his jangling way. I watched the mango lady feed the beast a handful of 10 Baht coins; the noodle soup man slapped a generous 50 Baht note on the dragon’s tongue.

A few things I know about myself: I’m pathologically restless. I build on nothing. Like the Chinese, I burn my paper houses and walk away. This Dionysian photoshoot with Nana reminded me of lines from a favorite poem by Frank O’Hara:

becoming ultimately local and intimate / repeating the phrases of an old romance which is constantly renewed by the / endless originality of human loss the air the stumbling quiet of breathing / newly the heavens’ stars all out we are all for the captured time of our being

–“You Are Gorgeous and I’m Coming” (1959)

 

Notes on makeup by Nana Chen:

Eyesliner: YSL
Eyeshadow: Chanel
Blush: Bobbi Brown
Blot Powder: Mac
Lips: Mac

 

 

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