Riding high on the success of its inaugural edition which drew more than 400,000 visitors, both local and international, Bangkok Design Week returns to Charoen Krung Road on January 26 for its 2019 showcase. “It’s one of the biggest design events in Thailand and indeed in Southeast Asia and this year will feature works and ideas from more than 1,000 designers,” Pichit Virankabutra, acting managing director of the Creative Economy Agency (CEA), told the recent press conference at the Thailand Creative & Design Centre. The Holy Rosary Church is an ancient Roman Catholic church in Samphanthawong District. “It will encourage everyone to find inspiration and unleash their creativity.” CEA is collaborating with the public and private sectors in holding this second creative and design festival on the concept “Fusing Forward”. The aim is to reflect the Thai capital’s potential as the hub for creators and entrepreneurs … [Read more...] about Charoen Krung gets creative
Creative plastic bags
Plastic? Fantastic!: Cambodian LGBT fashion designers find beauty in trash
PHNOM PENH: From a dress inspired by the plume of a peacock and fashioned out of bottle caps and cement sacks, to a black and orange tiger outfit made of plastic bags, one group of LGBT fashion designers in Cambodia crafts beauty from trash to battle discrimination.Violent attacks on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are common in the conservative Southeast Asian nation, even though attitudes towards same-sex relationships have improved in recent years."Just five or 10 years ago, Cambodians saw the LGBT community as social trash," said Ith Sovannareach, founder of La Chhouk Recycled & Creative Fashion. "People saw them as unnatural strangers."But now there is less discrimination, as we've seen more coverage on television and in newspapers about their capabilities."By making catwalk-ready outfits from waste scooped off the streets of the Cambodian capital, the 24-year-old Sovannareach is now subverting that stereotype, along with a team of lesbian, gay, bisexual … [Read more...] about Plastic? Fantastic!: Cambodian LGBT fashion designers find beauty in trash
Yet another step to deal with plastic pollution
Although there have been intensive education campaigns initiated by both government and non-government groups on how to minimise, if not totally eradicate the use of plastics, its widespread use remains. Chu Chu Myanmar, a local non-government group, has taken steps to address the daunting challenge of plastics pollution and has earned success and recognition thanks to its innovative methods of addressing the problem. The group’s strategy is to recycle discarded plastics materials and trash and turn them into usable products. Its workshop and showroom nestled in a quiet suburb across downtown Yangon in Dala township is a recycling marvel: the roof is constructed from old tyres and its walls from plastic bottles instead of bricks. Inside the structure are wonderful examples of recycling creativity such as lampshades cut and sewn from melted plastic bags and doormats made from motorcycle tubes. Bamboo is used for shelves and decorations, turning the whole structure … [Read more...] about Yet another step to deal with plastic pollution
Jakarta Tanpa Sedotan Promotes Alternative to Plastic Straws to Curb Marine Pollution
Jakarta. Indonesians often pride themselves in the fact that their country's waters contain the largest marine mega-biodiversity in the world. But in 2015, researchers of the University of Georgia listed the country as the world's second-largest source of mismanaged plastic waste produced by populations living within 50 kilometers of the coast. China tops the list, while the Philippines is in third place. According to this study, Indonesia produces approximately 3.2 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste annually, with up to 1.29 million tons of this ending up in the ocean. "We have very serious problems with plastic waste," Helen Dewi Kirana, fashion designer and creative director of women's ready-to-wear label NES, said at a press conference in Jakarta on Aug. 15. "And yet, people are not really aware of it, nor willing to take action." Enormous amounts of plastic waste can be seen on almost every beach in the country. "During every beach cleanup, we always gather huge … [Read more...] about Jakarta Tanpa Sedotan Promotes Alternative to Plastic Straws to Curb Marine Pollution
Keep It Green: Slow suffocation by plastic
PHUKET: I am unashamedly returning to a subject which I only recently aired in these columns. No apology. It is a crucial topic, in my case stimulated anew by an excellent analysis in the China Daily called ‘Drowning in Plastic’, and secondly by the cover story in a recent edition of the Phuket Gazette. Headlined ‘Fished Out’, the Gazette story has as one of its principal sources a Mr Somkyos, president of the Phuket Fishing Association. He cites pollution as a major problem, including, rather oddly, ‘farang feces’, and he fails to mention, even once, the ‘P’ (for plastic) word. Anyone interested in ecological issues knows that the principal culprits for the catastrophic decline in marine life are the triple evils of overfishing, inadequate regulation at all levels, and pollution. For decades, weighted trawl nets have scoured the shallow bottom of the Andaman Sea, removing not only entire fish colonies, but all its benthic life, including … [Read more...] about Keep It Green: Slow suffocation by plastic