What exactly is this 100 percent clean comedy of yours?
I crack the type of jokes that my parents can enjoy; this is very different from the usual self-loathing and cynicism in contemporary comedy.

You used to be a corporate man. Does that help or hinder you on the comedy circuit?
Getting up at 7am is a major advantage I have over most comedians. Most people don’t realize that auditions in the entertainment industry usually take place in the morning. And most comedians are stupid to miss out on such opportunities because they are boozing and taking drugs.

You have performed for FBI and LAPD agents, what were the experiences like?
If I wasn’t funny, I probably wouldn’t have walked out of that room alive.

Being an American of Japanese-Indian descent, how was it growing up in 1980s?
School was a torture; I was physically and emotionally abused because of racial reasons. In hindsight, I am so fortunate to have gone through such turmoil—it was great for character building. I read The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, and agree with its central thesis that people who end up anywhere in life were usually outcasts in school.

How well do you think your material will translate to a Singaporean audience?
There are so many folks around the world who are familiar with American culture, politicians and life and I guess that helps me to connect with the audience. Sadly, Americans can be an ignorant bunch; I mean 20 percent of them can’t even locate their country on a map.

Ethnic comedy—your take on it?
It’s amazing. If not for a huge South Asian Diaspora, I wouldn’t be playing sell-out gigs around the world. In fact I make more money than most white stand-ups because they don’t have the global connection which brown folks like Russell Peters and I share.

As a seasoned globetrotter, who is the funniest nationality in the world?
Indians are fantastic because they love laughing at themselves.

Catch Dan Nainan on Jun 15 and 17, 8pm. DBS Arts Centre, 20 Merbau Rd., 6733-8166. $52 from Sistic.

To say that the fashion design alumni and husband-and-wife team Je Yong Jung (Je Jung) and Rujira Lawonvisut (Ru) have done well, would be something of an understatement. Who would have thought that an indie Asian label would immediately take off in New York, debuting at New York Fashion Week last year to critical acclaim? Now, the WRKROOM: menswear line is stocked across eight states in the US, and is slowly making its way back home to Asia and Singapore, available for the first time here at Blackmarket. Je Jung lets us in on the label’s origins and philosophies.

How did you guys end up being based in New York?
It was merely two years ago when my wife Ru and I decided to start the brand in New York. Both of us had previously worked for fashion companies in the US such as Urban Outfitters, Theory and Gap. Although we were both holding head of design positions, we were still part of a machine … a big machine. We wanted to do something exciting, create something of our own. Although it was the period of economic crisis around the globe, we decided to look at the other side of the coin. We thought that when everybody is pulling back, more opportunities will end up presenting themselves. Which was why we decided to launch the label WRKROOM: in Brooklyn. After receiving plenty of good responses from New York, Dallas and Seattle, we decided to cross the ocean to expand WRKROOM: to Singapore and Thailand.

What is the fashion scene in NY like as opposed to where you guys are originally from?
NY is a special place for us. It is where we started the business and that’s where we live … well, one third of the time these days due to business developments in other countries. We love watching people at a lazy Sunday brunch. It is the place that inspires us and truly a city that never sleeps. Every time I am back in Korea, I realize that it is a big fashion city—people are very savvy and fashionable. You can see the latest trend anywhere, anytime. Ru is from Thailand, which is also very different from NY or Korea. The city allows individuals to have more freedom to express themselves. This freedom of expression allows them to create their own identities and styles where very unique and different looks can be found. We witness and experience these different perspectives and mix them up to create our own.

What is your design philosophy?
Designing fashion is an evolution rather than a revolution. Fashion is endless, trendy and evolving. We believe that it is about interaction in how people see, think and influence one another. It can also evolve according to the responses we get from the society we live in by way of politics, economy, music or art. Everything is interlinked.

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned doing business out of NY?
Well, the lessons come from working for large-sized corporations rather than directly from NY. We have learned to have “common sense.” One of my predecessors said, regardless how many degrees you have, the most important thing is having common sense. So when there’re challenges, deal with things in a way that makes sense.

How important is it to make clothes that sell as opposed to making clothes as a conceptual idea?
Whether conceptual or commercial, designing is a lot like cooking— you put simple ingredients into a pot to create a dish. And then you add your own recipe to make it a special creation. For us, that special recipe is the diverse range of people we meet. We’re very much influenced by the people we’ve met and will meet.

Why just menswear?
We started the menswear collection because we saw an opportunity in the NY market place, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have a women’s line in the future. Also personally, I like menswear because I can wear the line.

Where do you think the global fashion scene is heading today?
Global fashion is building a community that transcends style, luxury or commercial viability. If a brand can communicate effectively with their target audience, they can be extremely successful whether big or small, luxury or commercial. It’s all about communicating more effectively in the long run.

What are some of your pet peeves in the industry?
What bugs me is when ugly sells—meaning something that we thought, for sure, for a particular style, could never be sold, but unfortunately or fortunately became star of the season. It’s good when it sells well but at the same time, it’s not good when it comes to deciding whether to continue with the style or otherwise. Usually we’ll end up dropping it.

Where do you plan to take the label to in five years’ time?
Our dream is to build five studios in five different countries: NY, Tokyo, Seoul, Paris and Bangkok. Each studio will handle its own business and have a head person to lead it—think of it as advertising agencies in different locations. Currently we have studios in NY and Bangkok, so we’re getting there.

WRKROOM:’s menswear collection is on sale now at Blackmarket, #02-10 Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Rd., 6634-5201.

They were drugged, arrested, thrown off a plane, and stung so badly they thought they might die—experiences that have nothing in common except for having marked these people forever, sometimes in meaningful, life-changing ways. Here, the jinxed, the lucky, the foolish and the perseverant all tell us how it feels to experience the kind of stuff most of us only get to see on TV.

I GOT DRUGGED

Drew, 35, producer
 

It happened: In Bangkok, during the Songkran celebrations. A friend of mine was managing a pub, so I was hanging out with her and one of her former classmates, a tour guide, at an outside table. The two girls and I shared a pitcher of beer and watched the water battles rage around us.... My next recollection is being inside, my elbows propped up on the bar, shooting the shit with an Aussie mate of mine. He was eyeing me strangely, which made me nervous so I asked him, “WTF?” He turned to me with this grave look on his face and said, “You have no idea, do you?” Me: “No idea about what?” Him: “An hour ago you were passed out in the doorway of the bar. You were completely gone for two to three hours. We couldn’t wake you and punters were walking over you and you were getting splashed. Then all of a sudden you got up. I bought you a beer. And here we are.”

It felt: Like he was pulling my leg. Even after others corroborated his account—the bartender, my friend the manager, complete strangers— it still didn’t seem possible. I struggled to remember something, anything, from the period between beers on the patio and where I stood at the bar. My mind was completely blank. Not even a faint memory of being sleepy or drowsy, or waking up. At first it was really frustrating. The more I thought about it, it was also quite scary.

After that: The tour guide confessed to my friend the manager that she had put a sleeping pill in my beer—the one that has been referred to in media accounts as the “date rape” drug. “Why the hell did you do that?” my friend asked. Apparently she said she thought “it would be funny."

I WON A GAMESHOW

Terence Heng, 22, student

It happened: When I first heard about the brand new MediaCorp Channel 5 game show We Are Singaporeans from my friend. I decided to sign up for it to raise funds for my overseas exchange trip. After a relatively simple written test—the only tough question was “Who designed the SIA Girl Sarong Kerbaya uniform?”—and a self-introduction in front of a camera in which I recited the North-South line (a.k.a. Red Line) MRT stations in order, I made it to the show! I had to answer nine questions in the first round and be the top scorer in order to advance to the second round, where I get to climb up the money tree! I stumbled upon a few questions, including the infamous one of me not knowing how to spell Lavender correctly (I wrote “Lavandar” instead) and another of me mistaking local designer Ashley Isham for a “she,” but I eventually made it to the top and answered my final question correctly to win $10,000! My final question was: Which is Singapore’s oldest civil airport? Answer: Kallang Airport.

It felt: Extremely surreal. I had a couple of lucky guesses in Round One (I correctly guessed five meters when asked about the distance of the smoke-free zone outside a commercial building) and I was pretty lucky to get relatively simple questions in Round Two. Even though I did prepare for the show, I didn’t expect to win $10,000 at all, especially since none of the stuff I “studied for” surfaced during the show.

After that: People recognized me. Apparently with all the hype and promotion by Channel 5, my episode was quite highly-watched! And everyone was tweeting about me after the show. Most of them were laughing at my stupid mistakes, but well, I’ll admit I really didn’t know who Ashley Isham was at that time! And as for Lavender, I really don’t know what I was thinking then.

I SURVIVED THE TSUNAMI

Rungsuriya Tiyatonrongrodjana, 37, president of C&N Koh Khao Beach

It happened: When the Tsunami hit, in 2004, at my resort on Koh Kho Kao Island. I first heard a noise like something exploding. When I turned to see the source of the noise, I saw a huge white foamy wave expanding across the entire horizon. The wave had spread as far as the eye could see; it was massive! I saw little dots—ships at sea sinking—so I called for my employees and we piled into my car and drove off.

It felt: Like a movie. Everything happened so quickly. I just saw the wave in the distance, and the unnaturally low tide, and started to run. While I was driving, I looked back and saw the white foam of the wave just behind us. One of my men said it was only 100 meters behind, chasing us. I wasn’t thinking, just focusing on driving away. The wave died some 100 meters after running over the resort, but I still kept driving on and on.

After that: I stayed on the island two more days, without any connection to the outside world. When I returned to my resort, it had been completely destroyed by the wave and we had to rebuild everything. I was desperate, because I had spent some 10 million baht and put a lot of hard work into it and everything was gone in seconds. Today, my resort is rebuilt and we are doing OK.

I FELL INTO A COMA

Diyana, 25, undergraduate

It happened: I was in India for a short vacation with members of my extended family. Memories of the dreadful experience have been erased from my memory but according to my family, a truck had hit our tour van while we were on our way to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. My cousin and younger sister were injured but I was the only one who fell unconscious. I think the truck driver died as a result of the collision.

It felt: Obviously, I felt nothing during my period of unconsciousness. But my family felt my pain. They conducted prayers for me at my grandma’s house.

After that: The extreme feelings of dread only sank in when I realized I had been left behind in terms of my studies. The accident occurred when I was spending my first term at the Singapore Management University (SMU). After I regained consciousness, SMU kindly took me in again and made some allowances for me. As a result of the traumatic brain injury to the left side of my brain, I have had difficulties trying to write quickly with my right hand. I still can’t write as fast as everyone else now, even with four to five years of practicing with my left hand, so my doctor wrote in to say that I should be allowed to type for my exams. I really value the ability to write physically now. As the saying goes, “you are not aware of what you have till you lose it.” Also, I’ve become more religious and live by a quote from Robert Frost, “In three words I can sum everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.”

I WAS STUNG BY A STONEFISH

James Maskell, 32, freelance writer

It happened: On the tiny island of Pandan in the Philippines, this time last year. I was sitting at the edge of the water, and when I pushed down on the sand to stand up, I felt a sharp prick on the inside of my wrist. Within seconds I was in a ridiculous amount of pain and ran to the nearby dive school for help. One of the instructors administered a vacuum pump on the entry point, and sucked out some of the poison before it had chance to enter my bloodstream. But I could see it already spreading up my arm (apparently you’re in real trouble if it moves beyond your limbs), and so they had me submerge my arm in extremely hot water for nearly an hour to neutralize the effect.

It felt: Laughably painful. And by that I mean that when each wave of agonizing pain subsided, I would laugh deliriously at its sheer absence. It was as if my arm had been run over, and I’d have happily head-butted a wall to take my mind off it.

After that: None of the guests on the island went near the shoreline again that day. But the following day we all went in together, wearing shoes, shuffling our feet in the sand to disturb anything that might be lying in wait. And we were fine. It hurt to flex my wrist for about six months after, as there was some nerve damage, but a year on there’s no trace of it.

I WAS THROWN OFF A FLIGHT

Roland, 33, entrepreneur

It happened: A couple of weeks after ORDing from NS, I bought the cheapest plane ticket I could find to visit family in London. Cut-price meant a catch; I would have to route via Bandar Seri Begawan and Abu Dhabi on Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA). I had a seven-hour layover at the former, and as I lounged about the terminal some uniformed guy approached me and asked to see my passport. He took it and disappeared! Soon, boarding began and after seeking him out I was like, “Dude, stop dicking with my passport… I have to go.” He went, “We’ve received word from Singapore that there are people traveling the region with fake Singaporean passports.” I went ape-shit. “So you just stop the first person with a Singapore passport and accuse him of carrying fake documents?” I said, “Not very clever is it?! I just passed through Singapore immigration, so who are you to say this is fake?” After much arguing, he let me on board with a caveat, “The captain will ‘hold your passport’ until we sort it out; it should be sorted by the time we get to Abu Dhabi.” I spent the next seven hours slamming overhead cabins and arguing with the cabin crew (“ask the captain to pull his finger out and return my passport!”). Upon landing, I was welcomed by a party of mustachioed men. “Are you Mr XXX? We’ve been ordered to remove you from the flight. Come with us, please.”

It felt: Like a big f**king joke. I was escorted down to the tarmac where I had to pull my bags from the baggage hold. After that, they kept me in a small room and kept accusing me of having a fake passport. A Malaysian High Commission officer appeared six hours later looking unimpressed (Friday—his day off), looked at my passport, looked at my pink IC, exchanged some words in Singlish and declared “He’s Singaporean.” “Let him go.”

After that: I found myself next to a nutty Arab 12-year-old in my flight out who kept mixing his chocolate milk with vodka. Inspired, I joined in and was trashed upon landing at Heathrow.

I WAS ARRESTED FOR ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

Daisy, 28, restaurateur

It happened: In Singapore, where attempted suicide is a crime. I’ll start with the police entering my parents’ flat on the 11th floor, where I was sitting on the window ledge: A passer-by had alerted them. After failing to coax me to voluntarily come down from it, one of the officers grabbed me from behind. While calming me down, she gently explained that attempted suicide is a crime before I was taken to the station. Once in there, I was made to surrender my belongings and handcuffed throughout my time in there. I was to be taken to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for assessment, but not before I spent about 15 hours in the holding cell with junkies. The prison wardens made no distinction between me and the other inmates—I was handled roughly, spoken to rudely, and ignored when I called for attention. When the time came to escort me to the IMH, I was made to stand facing the wall while they shackled my hands and feet (I felt like a trussed-up Hannibal Lecter, only without the mask) before leading me to the police van. I was only freed of my restraints when I was in the IMH ward.

It felt: Horrid. Imagine already being in such a fragile state, then being subjected to all that. I half wished I had finished the job, for there was the potential that I would have a criminal record and/or be diagnosed with a mental disorder, and my career prospects would be ruined because of this.

After that: I’m now living with aunts. I wasn’t charged with any offence and my mental health record stays clean, but that doesn’t excuse my treatment in the holding cell. This is a good example of how ludicrous it is that attempted suicide is an offence here. Suicidal people are already going through a lot of pain—they need help, not prosecution (or even the fear of it).

I CLIMBED MOUNT EVEREST

David Lim, 45, professional mountaineer and motivational speaker

It happened: In 1998, on Mount Everest. I led the first Singaporean summit attempt expedition. My team made it to the top even though I myself was unable to, due to an injury on the final summit push. It was my obligation to put other team members on the summit, even if I didn’t make it myself.

It felt: Tremendous, once you actually start climbing. But the experience of climbing Everest is all about being patient. On the marches to and from the bottom of really big mountains that are 8,000 meters tall and higher, you spend a good half of the expedition sitting on your butt resting, waiting out long spells of bad weather. The climb itself is not that exciting because it’s not technically difficult. It doesn’t require a high level of gymnastic ability. The thrill is in following in the footsteps of giants.

After that: I did find my time on Everest immensely enriching and rewarding although it won’t give mountaineers the same experience that other mountains will give. It should be about the quality of the experience rather than the actual number of summits. (Note: Lim suffered a very rare and serious disease, Guillan-Barre syndrome, upon his descent. He has fully recovered and has gone on to climb many more summits.)

I love my dad don't get me wrong—but for almost my entire life, he's barely been home.

With Father's Day coming up in a little more than a week and a half, I figure it's time the two of us spend more time together.

Dad works at the York Hotel, basically from noon to midnight daily. Even for something as simple as a lunch he couldn't bear to leave his "second home". So I joined him there at the White Rose Cafe (chef speciality dishes at only $12 from May 1-July 31, 11am-11pm) yesterday. Here's what went down:

Me: [passing him a cup that I bought for him] "Dad, here I got you a gift. I love you."

It reads: "When I Become a Dad, I Wanna Be Just Like You" With an image of my dad in a sarong, smiling without his dentures.

Dad: "Where the f*** are my teeth?"

Can't wait for our next date. But maybe Mom would be fun.

How did the band start?
Shin-No: Three years ago, I was just travelling in Thailand, and was so fascinated by many aspects of the country, language obviously being one of them. So a year later, I stared taking Thai classes and listening to Thai music. Thai tunes are so different from the J-rock I’d been playing and they sounded great to me. Then I came up with the idea of covering these songs. Originally, not everyone was in the band. Tetsu, Keita and Ryo played together in another band called Kido Kyomei. But then we invited them to join us and got together to play Thai music.

Why the name Hanuman?
There is a Japanese expression, “saru mane”, which means “a monkey trying to act like a human.” We’re kind of like that monkey, as we are trying to imitate Thai people. We looked up several Thai words for monkey, and we picked up Hanuman, one of the brave and amazing characters in Thai literature.

Who is your favorite Thai artist?
Toh Nattapol Putti-Pawana, ex-vocalist of Sillyfools, who’s now doing vocals for Hangman. I love Sillyfools’ songs, but the first song we actually covered was “Chocolate” by Hangman.

What inspired you to write your song, “I Mai Muan?”
In Thai class, I learned that the sound “I” as in “mai muan” is spelled differently from the “I” sound in “I-mai-ma-lai.” I asked my teacher how I could remember when to use which, and he said that there is a mneumonic song that students use to remember, but because we’re not Thai, maybe we should write our own song. He was just joking, but we wrote it anyway, and now it’s used for Japanese students learning Thai as well.

Can we expect to see an album? Would it be in Thai or Japanese?
Yes, we are now working on our full album. We have six singles on YouTube, and they’re both in Thai and a mix of Thai and Japanese. The full album will hopefully be released and on sale at the Fat Festival at the end of this year. We’ll be playing there, too.

What was your first time on a Thai stage like?
After we started getting hits on YouTube, we created a Facebook page to communicate with our fans. I’d been writing on there about how much we wanted to play on Fat Radio, and I guess some of our fans were able to recommend us to people at Fat. We were contacted to join their music festival. Even then, we thought we’d be performing on the S stage, the smallest one. But we will get to be on the M stage, along with some famous Thai bands like Hangman. When performing, the most exciting moment is always when the audience knows your song and can sing along. It’s so much fun.

Catch Shin-No-Suke and his band on YouTube right here.

Medium and Technique: Large format film portraiture.

Why did you choose to shoot with an unwieldy bellows camera?
I’m an editorial photographer for magazines and I’m always required to work relatively fast. So with personal work I try to take my time. Large format photography is very complex, but it’s really meditative in the way you concentrate. Also, all of these people are giving me something special. I’m guessing that they feel that they’re having their portrait taken rather than just posing for a picture.

The backgrounds of your portraits are rugged and faded, but the subjects are left untouched. How did you create this effect?
Brushing, scratching chemicals and tearing. Not necessarily completely controlled, but trying to avoid the tattooed area. It’s just handmade work on the negatives. There’s no Photoshop, whatsoever.

What was your inspiration?
I kept coming back to this one photo [a portrait of a taxi driver, which is also displayed in the exhibition]. I used a Polaroid 55 [an instant negative film]. However, it was 16-17 years out of date. Like some vintage wines, some age well and some not so well. But I liked the way it looked, the texture, and the fact that it’s imperfect.

How did you get your subjects to pose?
Well, there’s two ways of doing a project like this—and I don’t like the first way at all. You can go to a big event, like the Wat Bang Phra temple in Nakhon Chaisi and line people up or you can meet people by chance. I only have two [portraits from the ceremony]. The rest were random encounters.

Who is the tattooed man in robes [displayed]?
His name is Achaan Toi, a very respected Tattoo Master.

How did Achaan Toi become so respected?
His tattoos have a reputation of being very powerful. The ‘tattooees’ all firmly believe in the spirits and powers of their tattoos. Many say once you get one, you start to feel the power. That’s how they end up having their bodies covered.

Will the exhibition be displayed anywhere else?
I’m going to have another show in London. I will most likely be working with an academic. It will be based more on anthropology so it will be a lot more about the people. I love anthropology. It is one of my passions. 

At The Art Center (7/F, Center of Academic Resources, Chulalongkorn University, Phaya Thai Rd., 02-218-2965). Through Jun 25. Open Mon-Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 9am-4pm.

My family moved from Had Yai to Bangkok when I was three. They sell shark fins wholesale.

I was crazy for heavy-metal bands like ACDC, Led Zeppelin, Rush and Ozzy Osbourne but I stopped liking them because of the whole sex and drugs thing.

I studied classical guitar at Siam Kolkarn Music School because I loved The Beatles so much. I wanted to play music like that.

I thought teachers would let me start with pop songs but they gave me classical music to study instead, like Bach. That’s how I fell for classical music.

I wanted to be rich and famous at an international level, and I realized that being just a musician, like a classical guitarist, wouldn’t take me anywhere.

I love to be the leader. So I looked into being a conductor. Also, I knew this was one of the professions where Asians can be accepted at an international level. You’re judged on your talent. Classical music will always be classical music.

I decided to be famous before hitting 25. My inspiration came from seeing Zubin Mehta, the famous Indian conductor, who was on the TIME Magazine cover when he was only 31.

My peak also came when I was 31: I won the Maazel-Vilar International Conducting Competition which landed me on the New York Times and LA Times. It wasn’t TIME but I am really proud of it.
I figured I wouldn’t go back to Thailand. A lot of my work was in Europe. But when I became a family man and needed a place to settle down, I figured, there’s no place like home. It’s even easier to fly to Europe and Korea from here, so I get to spend a lot of time with my family.

I used to conduct as many as 60 performances a year but it’s exhausting. Now I conduct only about 30 times a year.

After working at an international level, I’ve realized that our country’s brand isn’t strong enough. People don’t believe that our small country can produce talented people.

If Thais don’t believe that we can beat others, we’re done for. We’re dead right at the beginning.

I want to contribute my knowledge to this country by pushing more Thais to be successful. I’ve started writing books to tell them how to be successful. It’s not that I think classical music can benefit Thais. Europeans listen to classical music because it’s their culture. They preserve it because it is their heritage. We have nothing connecting us to it. Maybe we should support our local music culture?

Classical music requires a certain familiarity to absorb it sentimentally. I can’t convince Thais to listen to it for pleasure. But maybe I can convince them that classical music has side benefits, like raising their kids’ IQ or improving their mood. Then Thais might want to study it more.

Michael Jackson is my favorite pop singer. His music is really cutting-edge. It’s full of detail and excitement.

Lady Gaga’s music is just plain pop songs. She’s just good at promoting herself.

The most difficult thing about being a conductor, which is all about leadership, is to understand the culture of the place where you’re working so you can win people’s hearts.

It’s really hard to climb the steps to being one of the world’s leading conductors, especially for Asian guys in the US where white is the privileged race. It’s quite hard to find Asians as leaders of big corporations or orchestras. But if you open a restaurant, people go crazy for it.

I always see the glass half full, even when faced with tough situations.

I want to change people’s lives. I know that I can’t change older generations but I can do that for the new generation. Our country will change in ten years. That’s why I advise the Korat Youth Orchestra, where children can study for free. They’re going to have a big show in Bangkok soon.

My favorite musical instrument is the guitar. It’s sound is beautiful.

My kids are studying music. My elder daughters are studying piano while their little sister loves singing. She’s always singing.

Don’t choose a profession that makes a lot of money. Choose to do things that you love. Then find the way to make money from it. That way, you will be successful.

Success isn’t just luck.

Bundit has recently conducted a song called Krongpandin, sang by 999 singers, to commemorate the birthday of His Majesty the King later this year.

How does being Thai affect your design?
Being Thai has no effect on our designs actually. Our products have distinctive quality and character. We’re asked by our customers often if our products are really Thai made and the answer always makes them go wow.

How do you think Thai fashion customers have changed their perception toward Thai designer brands?
I think it’s getting better than before. There are a lot of Thai designers that are accepted worldwide. Each brand has their own concept and distinctive design, so there is now more customer awareness.

What should we expect from your next collection?
We’re starting our customization service in July, and there will be more professional looks coming up at the end of this year.

How does being Thai affect your design?
Each designer is rooted in a different culture. We draw differently, see differently and the time, culture and environment we grow up with affects how we create things. Pink in Thailand is possibly different from pink in Japan. What I mean is the Thainess has already been buried in our mind and soul, so our design obviously reflects our Thainess too.

How do you think Thai fashion customers have changed their perception toward Thai designer brands?
We’ve been receiving much more attention. Most of the brands are becoming more distinctive and fresh ideas seem to pop up every day, not to mention how the cutting quality has been improved. Projects like the Bangkok Fashion Society (BFS) or Bangkok International Fashion Week (BIFW) also help Thai brands gain more awareness and attention from the customers.

What should we expect from your autumn/winter collection?
We went out on the Columbus Cruise for summer, and so we’re continuing our journey to the forest for autumn/winter. The main story will revolve around a caravan, hunting and camping in the wild.

Would you say that your design has gotten more contemporary, even more European, over the years?
We have always been a street and contemporary brand, but more European. However, it could be the influence of the European buyers. Now that Greyhound is available in Paris, Moscow, Switzerland, Sweden and Berlin, we have to comply with their requests on certain items, especially winter pieces.

How has being Thai influenced your vision and collections?
One could define Thai style, especially Bangkok style as “beautiful chaos.” Everything and anything goes and we live together in harmony. Greyhound style is mix-and-match with a twist—we don’t really like a complete look but prefer to mix things up a bit for something more intriguing. We are inspired by the idea of combining chaos with beauty.

Can you give us some details about your upcoming Autumn/Winter 11 collection?

The collection represents a symbolic troop of the new generation, getting together on a mission called “White Troop” with the hopes of changing the world. It reflects our point of view towards how the world is changing fast due to man’s consumption and greed. The collection consists of mainly white, ivory and light grey pieces to suggest that a new balance is needed.