EXCERPTS FROM INTERVIEW WITH WIND KUPHIRUN
Creative Director of KUPH
Creative Director of KUPH
From using Thai government-issued wool to create a mini-skirt to draping Inspired by the mythical nagi snake, Wind Kuphirun’s designs take artifacts symbolic of Thailand and transform them into something easily understood while highlighting the Female form, “no matter what kind of form they are.”
Wind attended school in Bangkok until the age of ten before relocating to the US. Later, he would make his way to New York to study fashion design at Parsons, an early dream sparked by none other than Project Runway. He knew he was interested in fashion from a very young age.
“As I got older, I saw it as a universal language. You don’t have to speak the same language to understand. There’s more to clothes when there’s context. At the end of the day they’re just clothes, but it’s context is what makes them fashion.”
As a child his mother’s closet was a library to him, even though he was too young to know what any of those brands were.
When asked whether he would represent his Thai heritage in his work, he simply answered, “I always do. That’s what makes fashion interesting - how you translate those personal experiences into something the audience can understand. It’s what sets you apart from other designers. You see a lot of Thai art or design and it’s a very narrow perspective. It comes from a single traditionalist or Royalist perspective.”
But that’s not the Thailand that Wind grew up in. He grew up in a version of Thailand with much more grit and “untold stories.” Some of those stories coming from the large community of trans women here which is often seen as a negative stereotype.
“But they’re what makes Thailand Thailand,” says Wind. “A lot of my work embraces the female form — its important to highlight that because they are part of the conversation.”
After graduating from Parsons, Wind started his own label, KUPH. Which turned out to be one of the most rewarding bodies of work he has produced, considering that his parents weren’t very supportive in the beginning.
“It really informed my work after. It gave me a clearer vision of what I want to put out into the world and the story I want to share. And how I could bring Thai narratives into my work.”
That early body of work was not only technically rigorous but deeply autobiographical, proposing a new lens through which Thai heritage can be viewed.
Growing up Wind’s grandmother knew all the tailors in the small town of Chonburi.
“For school we’d have to get suits and that’s where my parents would take me. So it’s an essential part of my upbringing that I want to include in my work. Tailoring in Thailand doesn’t get the credit it deserves. In a way it’s a dying craft so I feel the need to preserve that.”
Not only does Wind want to preserve it, he also wants to propose a new side of tailoring in womenswear. Tailoring is mainly created for men and so when Wind would approach them with something slightly feminine, it was immediately met with confusion. But a seamstress wouldn’t have the precision of a tailor. Thus, Wind’s work is a blend of those two, proposing a more feminine side of tailoring which is hard to balance according to him.
His tailoring work is very much rooted in tradition, and therefore it is a form of cultural preservation and a proposal rather than an interpretation.
SEE FULL STORY IN ARTIFACT ISSUE N°1