GAIL'S FASHION DIARY

By Gail

Shopping Events - December 2012

Photos courtesy of Central World and Siam Center

BANGKOK - Don't miss these exciting shopping events taking place in Bangkok in December 2012. Hurry up as some of the sales and special offers are ending soon!

Central / ZEN Midnight Sale 

29 November - 5 December 2012

Photo courtesy of Central World

Whenever it comes to December, its time for Central Midnight Sale!

As they say, shopping is a girls best friend, so why not treat yourself to a little bit of leisure time at Central Department Store... Lets go shopping and catch fresh off the runway trends and special offers that you will not be able to find anywhere else. 

- Up to 20% off new collections 

- Up to 70% off high-quality products 

- Up to 15% off beauty products

Date: 29 November - 5 December 2012 

Location: At every Central store and ZEN

Seasons greeting from Clarks 

1 December 2012 - 5 December 2012

Photo courtesy of Central World 

Enjoy your shopping experience with Seasons greetings from Clarks!

If you are looking for a special gift for family or someone you love during this festive season, this is an event you dont want to miss. Clarks is offering all beloved customers exclusive deals and promotions on all items.

Buy 1 pair, get 20% off 

Buy 2 pairs, get 30% off 

Buy 3 pairs, get 40% off

Date: 1 December 2012- 5 December 2012 

Location: 3rd fl, Eden Zone, Central World

Bangkok World Watch 2012 

Today-12 December 2012

Photo courtesy of Siam Paragon

Seeking for a special gift for someone you love? Here is an exhibition that has all the answers. Bangkok World Watch 2012 has provided the customers with a broad range of new collections that sell up to 70% plus. You will also be able to use vouchers and cash back up to 15%. However, if your purchase is more then 20,000 baht, you will receive a premium and exclusive price from a selected brand. 

Date: Today- 12 December 2012 

Location: The Mall, Emporium and Siam Paragon

Siam Center Re-opening

December 2012 / January 2013

Photo courtesy of Siam Center

Siam Center, one of the biggest fashion shopping complexes located at Siam Square area is re-opening this December. It has been a few months since Siam Center has been under renovation in order to become Bangkoks number one trendiest shopping mall. This shopping complex consists of a wide variety of clothing stores including both Thai and international designers such as Lyn Around, Billabong, Castro, Esprit, Jaspal, Izzue, Playhound, Promod, Quicksilver, Villain S.F.

Date: December 2012 / January 2013

Location: Siam Square

Read more about Siam Center re-opening:
(Press Release)

Siam Center before the renovation (Photo courtesy of Soclaimon)

BANGKOK - Siam Piwat, the owner and operator of Siam Paragon, Siam Center, Siam Discovery and Paradise Park, today, unveiled sweeping plans of its total rejuvenation of Siam Center and the introduction of a revolutionary new retail concept that promises to put Bangkok among the ranks of the worlds most innovative shopping destinations when it opens on January 11th, 2013.

The new Siam Center is being filled with stores where brand owners and retailers have joined force to create new prototype store designs consistent with an overall Siam Center concept, including those of the biggest of big-name international and local brands in fashion as well as in food and beverages. In addition, most stores also carry special product selections that are unique and only available at Siam Center, including the provision of innovative and exclusive offerings extending to special menus in food and beverage outlets, too.

Mrs. Chadatip Chutrakul, CEO of Siam Piwat Co., Ltd., the owner and operator of Siam Center, said, Its a total physical and conceptual rebuild. Right here in Thailand, we are pioneering a revolutionary new retail development concept where the developer works collaboratively with retailers and brand owners to give the entire venue a consistent visual identity as well as a consistent promise to the visitor: that, no matter which store one visits, or whichever restaurant one patronizes, one will meet with unexpected products and services, and which will be unlike anything available at any other venue.

Photo courtesy of Siam Center

DESIGN CONCEPT

It will be what makes Siam Center special and its what we call Absolute Siam DNA. Its a concept that will elevate Bangkok to be among the worlds top retail environments. In fact, we are no longer a shopping centre. Were creating an ideaopolis  a place where great new ideas are presented, where art, fashion, technology, lifestyle and entertainment converge to create the unexpected and an inspiring experience for every visitor, and at every visit.

Brand owners and retailers have agreed to conceive their store design to reflect an overall theme that is clearly and distinctly Siam Center and to create a new prototype store never before seen. Next to that, brand owners have also agreed to offer around 20% of their collection  ranging from fashion to stationary, home decoration items  will be absolutely unique and only available at their Siam Center shops. Some will offer personalized services not found anywhere else in Asia. 

Mrs. Chadatip said that retailers have executed special visual merchandising design to make all their displays totally original. Also, Siam Center is offering visual merchandising display consulting team to support in the decoration of store fronts in a way that is consistent with Siam Centers concept and marketing activities. 

ABSOLUTE SIAM

Additionally, we are working closely with famous international and Thai artists to make Siam Center a platform where they may share and exchange ideas and inspirations, as well as facilitating the appreciation of their art through regular exhibitions and other events, she said. We are collaboratively creating a unique Absolute Siam experience at every possible level. Retailers are all very excited and their feedback has been beyond our expectations. Many have commented that this was the most powerful phenomenon in the retail industry that they had seen, and that it was something which has never been done anywhere else.

Boutique at Siam Center (Photo courtesy of  DestinAsian)

Were creating the new Siam Center through this novel, collaborative effort and jointly investing over Bht 1,800 million. Over 200 shops are working with us to create these totally new experiences for visitors. Their decision to work together with Siam Piwat to build prototype stores for Siam Center required from them significant additional investment in design, construction, and management time. But, because of that, we will be providing visitors hundreds of new experiences from all the individual stores that are quite unlike any of their sister stores around the city, This is the biggest collaboration ever undertaken by retailers and brand owners in Thailand.

This is a completely revolutionary approach in global retail development, and it is about bringing the unexpected back, and of making a visit to Siam Center amazing and inspiring, where visitors will feel they are coming to a new venue every time. (...) The new Siam Center we are building, and the new retailing concept that we are pioneering in Thailand is also nothing like anything that has come before it."

WHEN ART MEETS RETAIL

The concept of collaboration pioneered by the new Siam Center is present even in the smallest details in the building and is a strategy for the future. Collaboration has been forged with world-class designers and artists.

Among them is Mr. Hirotoshi Sawada, the Japanese artist who creates magnificent works of art and installations for 5-star hotels and iconic stores in countries around the world. He will create spectacular art pieces for Siam Center. Mr. Santtu Mustonen, the accomplished Finnish illustrator whose works are well recognized in Helsinki, Amsterdam and New York, agreed to develop illustrations to appear in Siam Centers advertising campaign and on a collection of exclusive souvenirs for shoppers.

Art installation by Hirotoshi Sawada, ifc mall, Hong Kong (Courtesy of Life &Times)

In addition, many famous Thai artists with different specialties have agreed to collaborate with Siam Center. Suklek animated series - the copyrighted property of Prayoon Junyawong, the famous writer who represented Thailands early generation of cartoonists - will be alive on giant LED screens on the ceiling.

Piya Pasuk, the up-and coming furniture designer, will design furniture exclusively for Siam Centers common areas. This form of collaboration will be the norm for Siam Center to make it a venue where Thai and international artists come together and share and exhibit their talents. Prepare to meet the new face of Siam Center which will amaze everyone Loyal fans of Siam are in for a new, exciting experience. Siam Center is making every floor striking and outstanding with exclusive brands and decoration styles. 

INSPIRATION

As for the latest design concept at Siam Center, Mrs. Chadatip said that the SoHo district of New York was one of many inspirations behind what Siam Center is about to offer. In SoHo New York, you see a timeless and invigorating mix of art, fashion and technology presented in a way that matches the unique character of the district. It is, perhaps, the only place in the world where stores have designed their shop to suit the distinct style of the district. They have adapted themselves to fit the unique character of their environment while still preserving all that makes their brand special and their particular equities unique. And, for the first time, at Siam Center, all of this is now being done under one roof, she said.

SoHo, New York City (photo courtesy of Smart Destinations)

She described the design theme of the new Siam Center as twisted  combining industrial chic with the ultra-modern, creating contrasts and surprises, playing with dark and light, as well as being experimental and surprising. Even the lighting, which in other venues tends to be generally very neutral, has been specially designed and purpose-built as an art piece for its own particular space in the building.

TECHNOLOGY

Technology plays a vital role in delivering the Siam Center promise to the visitor and is inseparably integrated with what the venue has to offer. Technology floods the environment. Floors, ceilings and walls are alive with movement, scenery and interactive displays that help visitors better connect with what they will find inside Siam Center as well as with other visitors. We put a lot of emphasis on connecting and interacting with visitors through technology, investing over Bht 70 million and installing more than 500 LED screens. There will be no more posters or billboards, but interactive digital walls and surfaces as well as digital stylists and even digital closets from where people can do digital fittings for clothing to see how a particular garment might look on them without having to physically wear it. They will be able to get personalized top tips, know the hot items to see and experience, and be guided to the top ideas and to new collections, Mrs. Chadatip added.

SHAPING GLOBAL RETAIL

I passionately want to see Thailand at the forefront of global retailing, which is why Siam Center will be among the first in the world to adopt these most progressive ideas that are shaping retail development design in the world, she said. In Thailand, we are the first in retail development to reach out and work collaboratively with the best of both local and international talent to help develop the finest of offerings, whether they be product lines that are exclusive to our location, premiums, or technological content and software, and of which are consistent with Siam Centers own unique identity, she said. You often hear in Thailand of a desire to make Bangkok a shopping capital like New York, London, or Hong Kong. Now we can proudly say that other countries will be looking at Bangkok to see what a progressive shopping capital should be like, Mrs. Chadatip said.

Siam Center renovation project (Photo courtesy of EEC)

ABOUT

Siam Center has a gross floor area of 40,000 square metres, with 250 metres of street frontage. It is located at the crossover station between the citys two major overhead mass transit rail system routes. It is also at the heart of Bangkoks retail zone with visitor traffic of around 150,000 people a day, of which approximately 60% are local residents and 40% tourists. Siam Center has an iconic place in Thailands retail environment, with a worldwide fan-club built over four decades of repeat visits. The passionate loyalty of its visitors pushed visitor numbers up to 350,000 people a day during the final weeks before its closure for rebuilding. 

FLOOR PLAN

 Floor 1: Fashion Avenue. It includes flagship stores of globally famous brands. They will be spacious and decorated in a free-form look that is easy on the eye with their storefronts using curved or angled glass, or clear acrylic 

 Floor 2: Fashion Galleria. This floor houses international brands for clothing, accessories, and cosmetics. It has the look of a concept shop where all stores are decorated in ultra-modern style and with black and white tones predominant to make them striking and unique.

 Floor 3: Fashion Visionary. This floor has the most comprehensive range of Thai designer brands in the country. All designers agreed to give their outlets a whole new design and decoration. Most of them are flagship stores with the most comprehensive range of product offerings. All project exclusivity. The floor is decorated with an organic look, using wood, steel and copper. 

 Floor 4: Food Factory. Here is a new trendy city hangout complete with international restaurants and food shops offering a wide range of delicious dishes in an original, industrial style environment. It is a fun place to meet people. Service hours are until midnight.

Christmas decoration at Siam Center (Photo courtesy of My Soul Insurance)

VISITORS

Target visitors: Siam DNA Siam Centers regular customers are those with Siam DNA. They are interested in trends around the world and are trendsetters themselves. They love arts and fashion. They are also tech savvy, always keeping abreast with ever-changing technology. In all its business endeavours, Siam Piwat conducts studies and develops a project in a way that best responds to the needs of its target group, meeting the different needs of different customers in different locations. The new Siam Center is the result of intensive study to fully meet the special needs of Siam Center customers. Visitors to Siam Center are those looking to gain an update on new, global trends. Their shopping expectations are much higher in terms trends when compared to elsewhere. This is because Siam Center is known to be the place that has always been ahead of others in terms of trends. People who just want more of the same dont come to Siam Center. The new concept shows, again, that we are doing everything possible for those customers with absolute Siam DNA. The concept may not be possible to use in other shopping centres because the expectations of their shoppers are not as high as those who visit Siam Center.

Source: Siam Center

See you at Siam Center! :)