THE LATEST COLLECTION ‘CLOUDBUSTING’ BY SHONE PUIPIA IS READY TO BE WORN AT SOI SA:M
TEXT: PRATCHAYAPOL LERTWICHA
PHOTO: NAPAT CHARITBUTRA
(For Thai, press here)
We’re almost certain that during the recent pandemic lockdown, many of who had been staying home didn’t just lay around the house doing nothing. We all tried to come up with all sorts of activities at some point during the time, hoping that it would help relieve our stress and boredom. Some has become oil-less fryer experts while some were enjoying their TikTok dancer phase. For Shone Puipia, the extra spare time was spent on designing the new collection for the first half of 2020, titled Cloudbusting. On top of that, he invited his mother, Pinnaree Sanphitak, father, Chatchai Puipia and grandmother to create art works that were later installed at the space where the opening of the collection was held recently and ended last weekend.
Shone Puipia explained the genesis of the collection where Uma Bunnag, a Thai-British artist asked him to design a wardrobe for her European concert tour with the given references being paintings of Baroque artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi and Elisabetta Sirani where human bodies in dramatic, surreal postures were wrapped around in seemingly endless pieces of silk and velvet. Puipia translates the concept into clothing pieces of stylishly vibrant colors and silhouettes with visible lines. The chosen materials and cutting techniques render flowing movements to the pieces even when the wearer stands still while extra motions effortlessly accentuate the fluidity of the fabric. Compared to his previous works, the collection sees less use of flashy colors with more separated pieces rather than dresses, allowing the pieces to be mixed and matched freely.
In addition to the clothes, which were hung up inside the space and had models strutting around wearing the pieces from the collection, what’s interesting about the show is the transformation of the second story of soi sa:m studio into a small exhibition space. The walls were pained in light pink color with music videos of Uma Bunnag projected on one of the walls. The space was surrounded by clothes and shoes displayed with some interesting gimmicks, all complemented by art works that made the collection look and feel even more intriguing and enigmatic.
“I thought of new possible approaches to communicate the image of the clothes in a way that would be different from a simple photograph.” To answer the question about the art pieces shown as a part of the space, Puipia told art4d about his intention of asking his parents and grandmother to spend their time during the lockdown to create their own works of art that would reflect their own views on the collection. With a personal interest in the female body, Sanphitak works with the actual patterns Shone uses in his design by rearranging their compositions into a large-scale painting with two fabric masses (perhaps velvet) attached on the surface of the canvas. The masses remind us of a woman’s breasts, which is the signature of Sanphitak’s own art works, and the piece itself becomes a motif that corresponds with Chatchai Puipia’s works where he painted different pairs of eyes on various parts of the walls to appear as if they were scanning the movements going on inside the space. Lastly is, the designer’s grandmother who painted a cross stitch of the shoes from her nephew’s collection.
During the time where the pandemic is starting to ease off and going outside of the house doesn’t seem so scary anymore, for art lovers and design buffs who are looking for some inspiration after the draining lockdown, the opening exhibition of Collection 2020 Part 1 : Cloudbusting by Shone Puipia at soi sa:m studio was a refreshingly interesting start. Following the protocol of pandemic control, the exhibition was open for viewers who made prior appointments only.