Dress And Color At The Thai Court, Ca. 1850 – Present

Costume Colloquium IV:  Colors for Fashion
Florence, November 20^th – 23th, 2014

DRESS AND COLOR AT THE THAI COURT, CA. 1850 – PRESENT
Piyanan Petcharaburanin and Alisa Saisavetavaree
Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, Bangkok, Thailand

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Thai courtiers of both sexes wore specific colors matched to each day of the week, believing that this would bring them good luck. This paper will touch briefly on the role of color in the dress of men of the Thai court but will focus primarily on color in women’s dress.

In the traditional astrological systems of Thailand and Cambodia, both based on Hindu cosmology, a color is assigned to each day of the week, based on the color of the God who protects the day. For example, the God of Sunday is Surya, who is associated with the color red. Thus, on Sundays, women at the courts would choose a red hip wrapper or top. It soon became fashionable, however, to also highlight the day’s color with a garment of a contrasting color, such as green, as was described in the memoirs of HSH Princess Chongchitrathanom Diskul (1886-1978), daughter of King Rama V’s half-brother Prince Damrong Rajanubhab (1862-1943).

Only courtiers dressed this way.  However, this tradition was gradually abandoned during the reign of King Rama VI (r. 1910-1925) as the dress at the Thai court continued to Westernize. Nowadays, Thais no longer dress according to the lucky color of the day. However, these colors have remained in Thai culture as traditional birthday colors. For example, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit was born on 12 August, 1932, a Friday, traditionally associated with blue.  So, every year on Her Majesty’s birthday, Thais throughout the country wear blue, and decorate their homes and public spaces with blue to celebrate the occasion.