THE TRANSFORMATION OF THAI KHON COSTUME CONCEPT TO HIGH-END FASHION DESIGN

Abstract

Thai Khon is a traditional Thai royal drama. The performance script "Ramakien" is adapted from the ancient Indian epic "Ramayana", which has had a significant impact on the history of Thai literature and art. Thai Khon has been passed down from the Ayutthaya era. It is part of Thai high-end theater performances and cultural arts. Thai Khon is not only a performing art but a combination of culture, art and ceremony. It is Thailand's precious intangible cultural heritage, inheriting Thai traditional customs and historical culture.

Thai Khon is famous for its colorful costumes and masks. In this research, the historical background and costume concept of Thai Khon will be analyzed. This research employed research methods such as literature analysis, field observation, and qualitative research methods to summarize and analyze the data, so as to obtain the important data that constitutes the design elements.

The research consists of four parts.The first part is the introduction of Thai Khon's art form, the development history and the main storyline. The second part includes the analysis of the story of Thai Khon and the overview of its main characters. The third part is the analysis and summary of the aspects of clothing, colors, headdresses, and personalities, and extract design concepts and design elements of the main characters. Finally, the research demonstrates how a new design method can incorporate the important design elements of Thai Khon in High-end fashion design.

In the previous research on Thai Khon, researchers mainly focused on its historical narrative and costume making technology. However, even though there has been attention given to the inheritance of Thai Khon, there is a lack in the research on how to combine innovate this ancient art through the incorporation of modern fashion and design.

This research is conducted with the purpose to inspect the inheritance and innovation of Thai Khon culture from a new perspective. The use of high-end fashion design in Thai Khon should make Thailand’s unique intangible cultural heritage more approachable and accessible to the public.

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