Fabric

Jim Thompson silks have long been synonymous with shimmering magnificence, combining incomparable quality with iridescent colour and opulence. Many of the silks are still hand-woven, imbued with the unmistakable Thai quality that characterises these beautiful designs.

The man himself is universally acknowledged as being the founding father of the Thai silk industry. By the late Forties, when Jim Thompson arrived in Thailand, the availability of cheap machine made cloth from abroad meant that the production of hand-woven silk was an unprofitable venture practised only by a few Bangkok families. Thompson capitalised on the naturally uneven texture of Thai silk, combining contrasting varieties on the warp and the weft, and replaced the traditional vegetable dyes with colourfast European ones. His considerable talents as a colourist ensured that this most iridescent of fabrics shimmered gracefully in settings all over the world, from Hollywood film sets to the stately grandeur of Windsor Castle.