The Chic consortium II: Jitsing Sonboon
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Bangkokrecorder Magazine -
Fashion
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Sunday, 10 July 2005 |
 The Chic consortium is a fashion forum for thoughts on trends, current movements in design and the pleasure of creative work in Thailand. Every month we will bring you the interests and motivations of trend experts who have seen beyond the curve and lived to tell the tale.
Jitsing Sonboon is a man of cult status in Bangkok. He is an artist, interior designer and the leading creative spirit in the Greyhound group of brands and projects as the head designer of the Playhound collection. “Sensibly Fashionable” being the overarching mission statement of the Greyhound, Grey and Playhound clothing lines, Jitsing’s projects are readily classified as the streetwear collection of the group. He launches two seasonal lines per year designed for street savvy and price conscious teenagers whose interests range from hip hop to skateboarding to graffiti.
He maintains a recognizable Thai detailing mainly for the overseas market, but the Thai signature is conscientiously minimal and streamlined akin to the unusual cuts and fabric juxtapositions found in the Paul&Joe, Iceberg or Dries Van Noten collections. Jitsing recently finished the Fall 2005 Playhound line and is now working on the conceptual stage of his Spring/Summer 2006 collection to be launched this coming February and March in Paris and Milan. Where shocking pink and electric green accent consistently highlighted his 2005 ensembles, his 2006 will be toned down by bringing in a range of softer washed-out tones. Mainly, he will work with washed out-hues offset by dark grays. Playhound’s base fabrics are mainly Thai or Japanese, leaving high-end European fabrics to the Grey and Greyhound collections.
Jitsing showed me a well-worn chaotic collage of torn magazine clippings as his inspiration for prints, color juxtapositions and cutting style. Rough cuts, fabrics that wrinkle easily like cotton, linen, microfibers and simuli silks are also present in the line. Inspired by mid-80s cuts, the “shredded season” will resonate of familiar forms like MC Hammer’s parachute pants and George Michael’s maxi t-shirts. Jitsing says he is very interested in proportion juxtapositions for the season. We will see ultra-low trouser crotches with tapered stove-pipe legs or skin-tight tops offset by oversized balloon pants. Also in the retro spirit, Jitsing use ink-jet iron-on transfers for traditional botany woodcuts and animal silhouettes. To celebrate Walt Disney’s 75th anniversary in 2005, Greyhound will license the Mickey Mouse image to great commercial success. In 2006, we will see some of Mickey’s friends. Expect sequined, embroidered, faded and altered renditions of Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto.
Expanding beyond the corporeal limits of clothing design, Jitsing is also currently developing paintings and installation works as an in-depth investigation of the psychological power of fashion over personality and the expression of self. The November 2005 exhibit at the Gallery Hofart should reveal a great deal of this designer’s inner motivations.
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