Frivolous Universe

Archive
Tag "Vietnamese tailors"

Bangkok is a city of extremes. One day you’re hospitalized with an acute respiratory tract infection; 48-hours later you’re on top of the world.

Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Napoleon, Pedro, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asian street style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, Vertigo bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok

Literally. Sipping Brut because Vertigo’s Moët et Chandon is slightly outside your 20-baht-fashion price point and taking in the Moon Bar’s lightning rod’s-eye views.

Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Napoleon, Pedro, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asian street style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, Vertigo bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok

All this hat-trick requires is one melodramatic F’book status update and a friend who is gorgeous enough to hop the next available flight from Phnom Penh to Bangkok. During the Civil War the Army of the James had Clara Barton. I have Pedro. There are friends and then there are friends. Nobody dies on Pedro’s watch, and the sickbed service includes California Brut.

Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Napoleon, Pedro, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asian street style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, Vertigo bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok

Sexy Maitre d’: Brown Herringbone dress tailored by the talented Pin-Pin of Hoi An, Vietnam

Wide belt: COLOR, Phnom Penh’s first and only vintage clothing store

What can I say? I followed the Thai doctor’s orders. She gave me a bag of drugs and wrote two recommendations on my Rx: “change environment” and “fresh air.” I wish this blog could convey the sound of me laughing my ass off.

Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Napoleon, Pedro, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asian street style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, Vertigo bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok

Breathe the fresh air in Bangkok — doctor’s orders! And while you’re at it, enjoy a kosher cheeseburger! With so many impossibilities at my fingertips to restore me to hale and hearty, I barely knew where to begin.

Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Napoleon, Pedro, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asian street style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, Vertigo bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok

Like Smilla’s varieties of snow, Bangkok is a smorgasbord of air: putrid air, steam bath air, pungent-garbage-underfoot air, heavy-particulate-matter air, Freoned-within-an-inch-of-your-life air, hooker-just-blew-menthol-in-my-face air, but fresh air?

Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Napoleon, Pedro, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asian street style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, Vertigo bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok

For such an ethereal commodity there’s only one thing to do. Scale Mount Meru or climb the sixty-odd floors to the Banyan Tree’s rooftop. Both are mythical places, but only one serves the bubbly.

Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Napoleon, Pedro, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asian street style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, Vertigo bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok

And while you’re up there, definitely check out the eye candy.

Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Napoleon, Pedro, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asian street style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, Vertigo bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok

Braided gold earrings & bracelet: mosstories, Terminal 21, Bangkok

Faux pearl friendship ring: Ciga Shop, Terminal 21, Bangkok

Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Napoleon, Pedro, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asian street style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, Vertigo bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok

 Lil’ Black Dress: COLOR, Phnom Penh’s new vintage store — check ’em out!

There’s nothing like a 2:00 A.M. bathroom photo shoot to bring out the minx in me. Take an Asian hemline and press it to my mantis gams and subtly slutty is what you get.

Belt: COLOR, Phnom Penh's first vintage clothing store

 Jingle-jangle earrings: Lumphini MRT street stall, Bangkok (for 20 baht, a.k.a. 65 cents)

Leather clutch: In Retrospect, Boise

Faux pearl friendship ring: Ciga Shop, Terminal 21, Bangkok

Yeah, I’m finally writing about the clothes.

Kim Philley, Vanessa Boots, Napoleon, Pedro, Frivolous Universe, http://http://www.frivolousuniverse.com/, Asian street style, Bangkok street style, Thai fashion, Vertigo bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok

The best thing about taking the high road to recovery? At the end of the evening, the concierge at the Banyan Tree gave me — a Brut-swilling non-guest — a free bottle of fancy hotel water. “Water from my heart,” he said.

 

I HEART THAILAND

I HEART VANESSA BOOTS, A.K.A. PEDRO — thanks again for the epic pics and the eleventh hour rescue!

 

Comments

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