Cambodia's fashionable rebels

Cambodian youngsters are becoming increasingly fashion conscious and are trying new looks

8 November 2011
By Guy De Launey
BBC News, Phnom Penh

As the sun sets, the rebels come out. Their favourite form of transport is the Scoopy motorbike. Their destination is Phnom Penh's riverside branch of Pencil.

On the face of it, this is an unlikely venue for youthful insurrection.

This nondescript, low-rise building in Cambodia's capital was, until recently, a slightly shabby supermarket. But where the shelves of food and household goods once stood, the rag trade has taken over.

This is what the rebels have come for. You shall know them by the brevity of their skirts and the blondness of their hair.

Cambodia embraces Fashion Week in style

Cambodia's first Fashion Week has seen shows across Phnom Penh

Eric Raisina says Fashion Week will serve as a "dream and inspiration" for budding designers

Top model agent Sapor Rendall says attitudes have been changing rapidly in the country

5 November 2011
By Guy De Launey
BBC News, Phnom Penh

If there were a prize for the most stylish man in Cambodia, Eric Raisina would be among the favourites.

He is dressed all in black, apart from two startling flashes of colour at his neck and feet - provided by one of his own silk scarves and a pair of vintage, multi-coloured baseball shoes.

This combination of casual elegance with a touch of the dramatic is very Eric Raisina. He applies a similar approach to the clothes he designs for women at his atelier in Siem Reap, in central Cambodia.

Short skirts not welcomed here?

Students and teachers from the Khmer Teacher Association protest in Phnom Penh March 28, 2010. Some 300 protesters demonstrated to discourage female students from wearing short skirts to school. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Teachers and students from the Khmer Teacher Association protest in Phnom Penh March 28, 2010. Some 300 protesters demonstrated to discourage female students from wearing short skirts to school. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

After the wife's morality squad, now comes the husband's 'natural' look fashion ... when does he have time to administer the country?

The "natural" look without toxic makeup, hair color and nail polish proposed by Hun Xen?

Hun Sen warns of toxic makeup, urges emphasis on ‘natural’ look

Wednesday, 03 March 2010
Cheang Sokha and Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post

PRIME Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday ordered the Ministry of Health to strictly monitor the use of toxic chemicals in cosmetics and urged Khmer women to project their “natural beauty”.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Health Ministry’s annual conference, the premier said the number of beauty salons in the Kingdom has grown significantly, and that many women are probably using beauty products without knowing what chemicals they contain.

He also suggested that cosmetics containing harmful chemicals could cause cancer.

“They have to clearly inspect [the products] before using them in order to make sure that people who use makeup for beauty are not in danger of cancer,” Hun Sen said.

Hun Sen also ordered health officials to penalise those who “cause damage to public health” by selling dangerous products or cosmetic services.

He concluded his remarks with a request that women shy away from the excessive use of cosmetics. “I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to all women – single, married or widowed. It’s better to keep your natural beauty,” he said.

Kim Nimol, who owns the Seara Beauty Salon in Phnom Penh, said Tuesday evening that her shop often sells weight-loss and skin-whitening products to customers, but added that it would make no business sense to sell dangerous products.

“I think about my clients’ health more than I think about money because I am afraid of losing my business and clients,” she said

“If we use cheap products to make skin white, it can make our skin itchy, get pimples, and sometimes it can become skin cancer,” she said.

“I think all beauty store owners should not earn money by destroying other people’s health.”

Decorative surgical masks make a fashion statement in Asia

Lay Lida studies Hamlet while learning English as a second language in Kampong Thom province. Style-conscious teenagers such as Lida, who sometimes opts for pink face masks because of their femininity, have helped spur a new trend Cambodia, a nation of about 15 million people. (Photo: Terry McCoy | For the Tribune-Review)

Monday, February 15, 2010
By Terry McCoy
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW

KAMPONG THOM PROVINCE, Cambodia — Lay Lida stares into the mirror, studying details discernible only to a teenage girl.

The 17-year-old's ensemble must be perfect. She's meeting friends later. There could be boys. But her outfit is missing a key component: The right surgical mask.

Glancing past the blue masks in her parents' shop here, she chooses a pink one. It just feels like a pink sort of day, she says.

"Masks make me more beautiful," she says later. "They make me look good."

Call it the anti-fashion trend — hiding, rather than augmenting, someone's look. This marriage of practicality and chic — bolstered by fears of the H1N1 virus, air pollution and the dusty grip of the dry season — has swept across Cambodia and other parts of Asia, fashion experts said.

Appearances matter, according to this rule, even when the fashionable item hides them.

"This is a kind of fashion," said Amra Doeur, who works with Tom & Alice Custom Tailors in Phnom Penh. "Everyone wears masks to protect their body, but the fashion is that they choose what mask is the best."

Novelty masks have crept into shops and stores across Cambodia to meet a youthful demand for fashion, combined with health benefits.

Surgical masks block most dust particles and make wearers less susceptible to infection from common sicknesses such as influenza, research shows. A study published in October by the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that fewer than a quarter of the 225 nurses who wore masks while working with influenza patients contracted the illness.

The kingdom's Ministry of Commerce does not keep industry statistics on the sale and import of surgical masks, but a walk through any urban market reveals their ubiquity and diversity. Cartoons adorn some. They are available in every color of the rainbow. Some sport the distinctly Cambodian red-and-white checked pattern of the nation's traditional Khmer Kroma scarves.

"I envision these masks in every hospital pediatrics department, library, school and airport," said Irina Blok, an American-based designer of novelty masks who sold about 500 of them here. "There's a huge potential out there."

Many people who work in the fashion industry blame the Japanese for this love affair with facial gauze. Just as many Western fashions matriculate from the streets of Paris, much of Asia's fashion links to Tokyo. The mask is no different.

In the early 1900s, after Japan's industrial revolution — with all the dirt and disease that came with it — face masks gained popularity outside of operating rooms, reflecting the abhorrence to germs and grime among that country's populace.

Then, a decade ago, when an incipient Cambodian tourist industry spawned direct contact with other Asian peoples, and their surgical masks, the trend quickly infected the kingdom, fashion experts speculate.

Still, the style of fashionable masks remains "in its infancy" here, said Fiona Kizston, owner of Wild Poppy, a fashion boutique in Siem Reap.

"Once Cambodians see other Asians from other countries wearing novelty masks more often, it will catch on here," she said.

Cambodians are a sensible people, even if a tad vain, said Chea Botom, who owns a souvenir shop in Siem Reap selling higher-end fashion. Usually, they don't do things superfluously. So, in today's world, with airborne diseases and pollution, masks have a purpose beyond trendy fashion.

"If we didn't have diseases and pollution, we wouldn't have masks," Botom said.

Making connections at Angkor

Mon, Jun 22, 2009
By Clarissa Tan
The Business Times

THERE is poor and there is poor.

In Singapore, being poor may mean you have never stepped into a fancy restaurant. In Cambodia, it likely means you have never tasted meat.

This is the kind of overwhelming divide between industrialised countries and emerging nations that we rarely have to face head on.

Except, of course, when we travel.

And Siem Reap - home of the breathtakingly beautiful Angkor temples, situated in one of the poorest nations on earth - is one place where the two worlds collide. Tourists flock here; they give the begging children dollars, euros, pennies, baht. But is there a more durable, responsible way for travellers to even begin to bridge the gap, a way that ensures the dignity of both sides?

Sewing school in Siem Reap

At least one hotel in Siem Reap is approaching this in a systematic, grassroots way. And it's a five-star hotel, no less.

The stylish, boutique Hotel de la Paix - at about US$300 per night for its cheapest rooms, way beyond the dreams of most Cambodians - has a programme that helps its guests foster ties with organisations such as orphanages and schools, if they wish.

In their rooms, all patrons will find a booklet called Connections, which offers to get them acquainted with the NGOs and institutions that run such projects. Guests can also choose to provide school supplies, rice or potable water, or the hotel can help them customise their own sponsorship package.

"Some people ask why you would choose to stay in a hotel such as ours, apparently insulated from the world," says general manager Nick Downing.

"I tend to look at it from the other side. Hotels and tourism organisations such as ours help bring awareness to the country in which we operate. We are instrumental in bringing people and resources to assist the development of the country that would otherwise not happen.

"However, I don't believe in 'guilt tourism' and we do not push people to participate. All we do is present options in a subtle and non-confronting manner."

The hotel, he says, was conceived with the social context in mind.

"Hotel de la Paix was created to be a very different hotel in Siem Reap. We were created to stand out in design, service and our commitment to the community. In such a developing country, it is important to participate and play a role."

Siem Reap still having that small-town feel, it's all about creating a web of connections between locals, foreign aid workers on the ground, and travellers.

(If you're going to Angkor Wat soon and are fortunate enough to afford the Hotel de la Paix, why not pack a few old toys and clothes into your bag? The hotel will take it from there, shuttling the items to the relevant parties.)

Last year, MasterCard got in on the act too, donating one bicycle for every Hotel de la Paix room paid for with their credit card between Sept 1 and Dec 31.

The American corporation, via its Asia-wide "social responsibility" platform called Purchase with Purpose, raised funds for 397 bicycles.

The bicycles encourage children to ride to school, something they are often deterred from doing by the long distances and other family responsibilities.

"One only needs to see the joy on the children's faces to understand how much these bikes mean to them," says Elizabeth Duke, MasterCard vice-president for business expansion.

"It is a treat to watch the laughter as they ride around for the first time. The children also realise that the bikes are more than a form of transportation, and represent independence and mobility that they never had before."

The bikes have a multiplier effect, she says.

A boy from the Sangkheum Centre for Children, an orphanage, using a bike sponsored by MasterCard.

"It is the norm for children to share a bicycle, so that not just one, but up to three children in a family will use the bicycle to get to school and run errands."

MasterCard will also sponsor 10 women for the Hotel de la Paix Sewing Training Centre, says Georgette Tan, vice-president of communications.

The 10-month programme teaches women to use a sewing machine, as well as offers education on setting up a business. "The programme will also include basic financial literacy to help the women manage their finances," says Ms Tan.

A visit to charming, rapidly growing Siem Reap reveals that much can be done. And that help, hope and goodwill abound in all quarters.

A poignant case is that of 40-year-old Hom Sophart, who spent about half her life begging on the streets of Siem Reap. Her husband, recently deceased due to cancer related to alcohol poisoning, used to beat her.

She scrounged in dustbins for food for her eight children. Despite her troubles, at one point she decided to adopt - bringing nine under her wing - because she met a child who was even worse off. Sophart cannot talk about her years on the streets without weeping.

She now lives in the compound of the Green Gecko Project, which offers shelter for street children and abused women.

Green Gecko, started by an Australian, is one of the various projects supported by Hotel de la Paix. "My life is so, so much better now," she says via a translator. She can say no more because she is crying again.

Then there is 18-year-old Soy Sareth, recently graduated from the Sewing Training Centre. She now works five days a week, eight hours a day, spending half a day to make one shirt. She earns about US$30.35 a month, she says through an interpreter.

What does she do with the money she earns? "I buy food. I give the rest to my mother. We buy chickens to raise. We had no chickens before."

Because they had never had chickens, they asked their neighbours to help them do the slaughtering. Then her family set about boiling the poultry.

Did she enjoy the meal? "Yes," she says, giggling. "I plucked the feathers myself."
-------------
Temples of chic

SIEM REAP is known mostly for its proximity to Angkor Wat, the world-famous complex of ancient religious buildings. But increasingly, on its bustling and colourful streets, it's gaining recognition for its temples of designer chic.

Showcase for local talent: Rather than a lobby bar area which remained static, the designers and developers of Hotel de la Paix committed a huge central space to developing the local arts scene, with new exhibitions ever six to eight weeks.

These stores are often set up by people who, tiring of their glamorous lives in larger metropolises, have opted for the slower but warm-hearted pace of the Cambodian city.

Elizabeth Kiester, for example, was the New York-based fashion editor for Marie Claire, Mademoiselle and Jane for 15 years. She was also global concept director for Abercrombie & Fitch and global creative designer for LeSportsac.

But last year, she packed her bags to set up a shop called wanderlust in Siem Reap.

"I came to do a volunteer vacation after a gruelling month-long media tour of Asia for the launch of the Stella McCartney for LeSportsac collection," she says. "Siem Reap touched something inside of me that no place ever really had, and I decided to drastically change my life. I also recognised the amount of cool young women who were living in Siem Reap, working at hotels, cafes and NGOs and I thought, 'Where are they buying their clothes?' The idea of wanderlust was born."

The red-windowed shop displays her current cheerful, boppy range of street wear.

The store also sells items designed and made by Cambodians, such as the Nikaya line of jewellery by the handicrafts arm of NGO Journeys Within.

"It was critical to me to have wanderlust be part of the local community. I respect and admire the Khmers enormously, and I am well aware of the tragedies that have befallen this country. And I will do what I can, in whatever small way, to help get this community back up on its feet and smiling and successful again."

Ms Kiester's wanderlust is located on the Alley West near the Old Market, which is lined with trendy retailers, restaurants and boutique hotels.

On this street you'll also find Poetry, a quirky design store run by artist and photographer Loven Ramos and designer Don Protasio. Ramos, a Filipino from Manila, has lived in Siem Reap for five years. "I stayed because of the great energy that you get to create here, rather than be part of the energy that the big cities have."

Cool shops to visit in Siem Reap include Eric Raisina's atelier/studio.

Mr Ramos is just one person among an influx of artists and designers who are behind the galleries and boutiques that have seemingly popped up overnight in Siem Reap.

There is the fashion atelier by Madagascar- born, Paris-trained Eric Raisina (visits by appointment only), and art and photo galleries such as the McDermott and Tiger Lily, as well as a lounge dedicated to local artists at the Hotel de la Paix, the largest space of its kind in the city.

One of the hotel's curators is Sasha Constable, an artist herself and descendant of the famous English Romantic painter.

Ms Kiester says it's only a matter of time before Cambodian art and design gets worldwide recognition.

"When you look at something as beautiful as Angkor Wat, you fully understand the depth of the creative spirit and craftmanship of the Khmers. The art world here is taking off; we have some incredibly fine artists who are showing their works locally and internationally.

Elizabeth Kiester, former fashion editor of Marie Claire and Mademoiselle.

"Trust me, in 10 years, Cambodia will be the hot spot for international design."

btnews@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Business Times.

[Romyda Keth] Noted Cambodian designer to launch collection in Manila

Paris-trained Cambodian fashion designer Romyda Keth (Photo: www.rouge.com.sg)

Click here to learn more about Romyda's life

Noted Cambodian designer to launch collection in Manila

06/15/2007
Inquirer (Manila, The Philippines)

MANILA, Philippines -- I’m the only one left. My whole family killed, my sisters and parents,” the hotel driver said as we came up the driveway of Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh.

It was an odd way to break the ice, but what initially comes to mind among first-time visitors to Cambodia, like we were, is “The Killing Fields”—the movie and the recent history of this Southeast Asian neighbor. We asked our driver if he was around during the civil war in the ’70s and the ignominious Pol Pot regime which saw about three million people killed.

He was 13 years old then, he said. We would later learn that his fate was fairly common among residents of Phnom Penh. People lost families to the genocidal regime that wiped out a quarter of the population, mostly of the educated class.

Yet Cambodia today is not a sad place; far from it. While it’s not as bustling as Metro Manila—not yet—it is experiencing an economic boom. Former Budget Secretary Ben Diokno, whom we ran into at the Raffles (he was in Cambodia on a consulting job), said Cambodia is the fastest growing economy in the region.

“On the fast track” is how World Bank describes the Cambodian economy, fueled as it is by garment exports, tourism and agricultural production. Its garment industry is apparently surviving the China onslaught.

This brings us to why we were in Phnom Penh in the first place—to look into the fashion collection of Paris-trained Cambodian designer Romyda Keth. (A few Cambodian designers are making inroads in New York.) Apart from her beautiful atelier/store in Phnom Penh, Keth already has stores called Ambre in Tokyo (Roponggi), London, Paris, Ho Chi Minh and in a high-end resort in Africa.

Keth’s atelier in a leafy neighborhood in Phnom Penh is a lovely two-story colonial house she turned into a showroom. The beauty of Phnom Penh is that, like Ho Chi Minh, it has a few houses and government buildings that survive from the country’s French colonial years. They’re like isolated pieces of old Europe transported to the here and now, co-existing—although not fully blending—with aging shophouses, new fancy buildings with bright blue glass windows purveying hybrid architecture, and well-paved roads (Phnom Penh has a better road network than Metro Manila) that have equal numbers of motorbikes and cars.

On a hot summer day, Phnom Penh neighborhoods can be pretty laidback. It was to this comfort zone that Keth returned as a wife and mother after growing up in Paris.

Born to diplomat parents (her mother is Cambodia’s ambassador to Beijing and her father is the ambassador to Unesco), she and her family left Cambodia when she was only seven. After years in Prague, they moved to Paris in the early ’70s. There she went to the Paris School of Fine Arts and, later, to the Esmod School of Fashion Design.

After only two years at Esmod, she accepted a designing job at Macy’s. Not long after this, she began showing her own collections in a small boutique in Paris and developing a good clientele, including actress Carole Bouquet, the former wife of French actor Gerard Depardieu.

In 1994, her husband, a biologist, prodded her to return to and live in Cambodia. The couple and their four children (now aged 18 to 5) resettled in Phnom Penh where Keth took some time to adjust. She continued exporting her clothes to her Paris clientele, but before long, she discovered the native home industries of embroidery and silk weaving. Cambodian silk and embroidery then became the defining elements of her design.

Keth’s designs are chic, as chic as her atelier. They’re not costumes. They’re contemporary, and a few, such as her winter coats with fabric-strip borders, offer cutting-edge designs. It’s obvious she speaks through fabrics and colors, the way she does in her shop.

Tantalizing colors

Her atelier has graceful wrought-iron windows, a fluid stairway, and rooms in colors that are so bold they put you in various moods as you move from one to the other. Her colors stimulate, like spices. For instance, her black clothes are in a fuchsia room. On the second floor, the black and grey clothes are in a purple room. Another room is painted in shades of purple to serve as backdrop for red-to-hot pink clothes.

Like the walls of her atelier, her clothes follow a stimulating palette—from blacks and greys, to purple and lilac, to saffron and fuchsias and pinks. These are tantalizing colors to any woman.

Her silhouettes are trendy but wearable—lots of bubble skirts or flare, pencil skirts or dress coats. She uses appliqués (perfect on those colorful geometrics), embroidery, judicious beadwork, fabric strips.

Her clear advantage over Filipino designers is her access to fabrics: Cambodian silks, organza, and Korean cotton and other fabric blends.

She loves mixing colors and fabrics. “Today’s women are so busy in their careers and with their children that they forget to be glamorous, to be women, to be pretty,” Keth told us.

She designs mini collections every week—a clear indication of a growing clientele in Phnom Penh, composed mostly of expatriates and a growing middle class. This should easily draw the envy of Manila designers.

Another enviable thing about Cambodian fashion is the existence of weaving villages. Our car crossed the Mekong River by ferry boat to reach Koh Daich, a village of weavers. There we saw women hunched before their looms, weaving silk in jewel colors—fuchsia and pink in one house, lilac in another, aqua in still another.

Ramon Bilbao snapped up the fabrics and wanted to bring home those huge concrete jars (septic tanks, it turned out) if only he could.

Hiraya Gallery’s Didi Dee arranged our trip on the invitation of another (ex)gallery owner and businessman, Michael Adams, our friend from the Pinaglabanan Gallery years of the ’80s. Michael and his wife Janet are frequent visitors to Phnom Penh, looking into the orphanages there. It was on one of these trips that they walked into Ambre, Keth’s store, and loved her clothes.

Michael and Janet will open a store of Keth’s collections in Makati and launch it in November this year.

Designer Aims to Please All Shapes and Sizes [- Cambodian silk]

Babs Lucus with a silk spinner artisan in Cambodia in 2006. Cambodian silk is made using ancient techniques, such as hand spinning and loom weaving. (Tanya Meyer)

May 11, 2007
By Kasia Fryklund
Special to The Epoch Times

It isn't often that someone comes along who has the power and drive to make a difference in the world, but Babs Lucus is convinced she can do precisely that.

What began as a passion for silk and design has, with Lucus' sense of creativity and innovation, turned into a stand for challenging what society has come to expect as the norm, especially when it comes to fashion. Located on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, Babs Studio Boutique operates on the fundamental value of making "one difference at a time."

Lucus first became fascinated with silk and the other textiles she encountered while traveling in Cambodia. She has been in love with everything Asian ever since.

"I often joke around with people that I'm Asian on the inside and White on the outside," she laughs.

While in Cambodia, Lucus forged a strong connection with the local weavers, which inspired her to seek a way to assist them. She began to get in contact with many fare trade organizations and NGO's in the hopes making a difference in peoples' lives through creating an industry of silk weaving. She helps support the Artists of Cambodia organization, which creates employment for some of Cambodia's most vulnerable: landmine survivors, people with disabilities, and women.

Lucus travels to Cambodia twice a year to order silk supplies. The silk there is made using ancient techniques such as hand spinning and loom weaving, and is one of the most luxurious and sought after textiles in the world, she says.

Lucus has another passion, which is to depart from the "skinny model" ideal that the fashion industry promotes. She believes that clothes should fit each unique body type, and so two years ago she created a line that bridges the gap between petite and large sizes. She says her boutique is one of the only stores in Canada that carries such an extensive size range.

"I want to make clothes like everyone else does and make beautiful things that people adore and look beautiful in, but I also want to feel good about what I'm doing. Spreading a positive body image is part of the package," says Lucus.

A regular customer at Babs Studio Boutique, Zoe Ryan, says Lucus' creations have been effective in promoting a positive body image in women by "mixing a very trendy location with amazing clothes with a body positive message." "So many clothing lines for curvy, bigger women are so very boring and use only darker colours and unexciting fabrics," says Ryan. "Bab's designs and clothing celebrate all women and make all women feel beautiful when wearing these clothes."

Hoping to make a significant change in the way the fashion industry operates, Lucus has set out to find women who are not airbrushed or perfect, and who are "in touch with the meaning of life." To that end, she launched her first "Real Woman Contest" on National Woman's Day. The purpose of the contest is to celebrate and reward true and natural beauty so that "acceptance will be a common feeling we have for one another and for ourselves."

"I'm here to say that size really doesn't matter," says Lucus. "Beauty is from within, which is what we should be celebrating. It really isn't about the prizes, or being a model, or glory, but the courage and stepping up together."

The Moxie Murmur is another one of Lucus' endeavours. This little publication portrays something of her generous nature through a statement on the top left-hand corner that reads, "Our 2 cents, Yours Free." The Moxie Murmur was created as a way to provide a woman's perspective and to offer a local and positive outlook on life. The only articles allowed in the paper, says Lucus, are those which "provide a solution to whatever problem that is being addressed." Having been blessed with the gift of being both a leader and an inventor, Lucus feels she has the power to implement changes in society. Her designs are only the start of what promises to be a thriving career geared toward the betterment of humanity.