Shopping & Style

Move over, elephant pants. Thailand has another wardrobe staple worth adding to your closet: it comes in pairs and is made of leather.  That’s right, Thailand's homegrown leather shoe brands have grown from humble workshops into respected names recognised both locally and internationally the past few years, and we’re all here to celebrate them. With carefully selected premium leathers, skilled handcraftsmanship and versatile designs, these shoes are actually built to last rather than simply chasing seasonal trends.  And before you think it, forget the idea that leather shoes are only for boardrooms or black-tie events. Everyone’s going for the leather shoe look these days, seamlessly blending artisanal quality with everyday looks. We’re talking timeless loafers and Derby shoes, rugged boots and leather sneakers. They literally go with any outfit.  To celebrate this new Thai craft, we’ve rounded up 12 leather shoe brands made in Thailand worth knowing – from heritage names that have stood the test of time to emerging labels worth keeping on your radar.  

Anyone after somewhere to wander once the working day winds down, or keen to swap the shopping mall for a city-view car park, can mark this one on the map. 'Tay Level 10' returns, gathering shops, crafts, vintage finds and street food on the 10th floor of S-Oasis in Chatuchak, running August 6-8, midday-8pm. Photograph: trys_terHybrid Flea Market The appeal here isn't only the browsing. It doubles as a community corner in the Chatuchak-Mo Chit-Vibhavadi-Phahonyothin stretch, the sort of place you drop by to sit for a while, meet a friend or grab a proper feed after clocking off. Once again it sets up in an open-air car park ten storeys up, though this round a roof handles the rain. So you take your time regardless of what the forecast says, with the traffic humming somewhere far below. Across the three days more than 80 stalls line the floor, from fashion and secondhand pieces to film cameras, homeware, potted plants and small accessories, alongside a food and drink zone. Whether you collect vintage, need something for the flat or just want a decent bite, you head home with more than you turned up with. Photograph: trys_terHybrid Flea Market The location earns its keep too. It sits a short walk from both Mo Chit BTS and Chatuchak Park BTS, and a free shuttle runs from the stations right to the door, which matters when the afternoon heat sets in. Thinking of trading rather than shopping? The team still takes vendor applications, so long as you send photos and product details for a look first. The rules are straightforward. No alcohol on sale, and no gas stoves among the food traders, electric only. A 3x2-metre pitch costs B2,900. Message the Line Official @TRYSTER to arrange it. At S-Oasis, close to Chatuchak Park MRT and Mo Chit BTS. Free entry, August 6-8, midday-8pm. Your after-work stroll just found its spot.

Analogue is alive and well in Bangkok. Once you start noticing, you see film cameras everywhere – slung over shoulders at gallery openings, hanging off wrists on weekend coffee runs, peeking from tote bags on the BTS. Part of the appeal is ritual. You drop off a roll, get told it will be ready in a few hours or, sometimes, a few days, then carry on with your afternoon. Grab an iced coffee. Drift through a neighbourhood you have never properly explored. Lose track of time for a bit. Then comes the good part. The email lands, or you head back to the lab, and there they are: your images, scanned, uploaded, waiting. Somehow it still feels more satisfying than any instant preview ever could. Labs have sprung up from Chatuchak to Charoen Krung, each with its own character. Some double as bars or galleries; others feel like friendly studios run by obsessive hobbyists. What they share is a refusal to let analogue photography become a nostalgia act. Here, it is simply how plenty of people shoot.  Head east to Suan Luang for blink-and-you'll-miss-it turnaround times, cross the river for a studio that feels more like a gallery than drop-off counter, or wander into Chinatown's Soi Nana to find one of the country's most respected darkroom operators working by appointment, doing things with Fuji E-6 chemistry that most labs would not attempt. Below is a verified guide to Bangkok's best active film labs, confirmed as of June 2026. As ever with small labs, check opening hours, chemistry availability and turnaround times before making a special trip.

Bangkok’s book scene is having a quietly excellent moment. Beyond the usual shop-and-go routine, the city is leaning into more social, more experiential ways to read: bilingual book clubs, thriller discussions over wine and heritage spaces turned into treasure hunts for pre-loved finds. Whether you’re trying to clear a long-neglected reading pile or just want an excuse to be around people who actually finish books, there’s plenty happening right now. And with the year’s biggest fair still to come, this is just the warm-up. Here’s our reading radar for 2026 so far. 

Weekend hike merino, Korean perfumes that used to get stuck in customs, those frames everyone's been wearing on your feed – all finally in Bangkok. Done with the overseas seller and shipping limbo! Bangkok's had a steady run of new shops open these past six months. Big global flagships are popping up left right and centre. Hot on their heels, Thai brands are claiming premium mall space. The whole shopping scene is notably less same-y than before.  In celebration of this shopaholic diversity, here are the spots with technical gear that'll actually get used, beauty you can swatch before buying, tailoring that accounts for how people here are actually built. Head here when you're ready to browse or just feel like spending.

Updated February 2026: We’ve refreshed our list of the best record stores in Bangkok to keep you on top of the best new spots to dig. Recent additions include Recoroom Vinyl & Vintage Audio and Format BKK, as well as a special entry Cassette Shop for those who prefer their music on tape. Running your fingers along the spines, hearing that faint crackle as the needle meets the groove. It's a pleasure analog music lovers know can't be replicated by any streaming service. Unless you’ve been living under a digital rock, you’ll know that record shops in Bangkok are making a serious comeback. Communities for people who speak the same language, they’re where you’ll find vinyl lovers digging and poking through grooves new and old in search of a hot release or rare first pressing.  From old-school institutions that have been around since your parents' day to hidden underground spots brimming with character, the city's vinyl scene is thriving in ways you might not expect. Whether you're into jazz, soul, indie, international releases or boundary-pushing molam, Bangkok's got you covered. We've rounded up the very best record shops across the city, from the well-loved classics to the newer spots making serious waves. Trust us, there's enough here to keep any crate digger happy for hours. We update this article regularly to ensure the information remains accurate and current. So grab your tote bag and get ready to hunt for some proper analogue joy. Your next favourite album is out there somewhere, just waiting to be discovered.   RECOMMENDED: Coolest vinyl bars in Bangkok  The best listening bars in Bangkok  Vinyl digging in Chiang Mai

For a long time, brides looked elsewhere for the beautiful white dress. Paris, Milan, New York. The assumption was that the best had to come from somewhere far away – as if beauty and craftsmanship couldn't possibly exist here. But they do. They always have. Thai designers understand the weight of tradition without being confined by it. And perhaps most importantly, there is something meaningful about entrusting your wedding dress to hands that understand your context, your story and your visual language, whether you have lived here your whole life or chosen Bangkok as home. Bangkok is not playing when it comes to bridal. Push open an unassuming workroom door and you will find heritage embroidery, stitched patiently by hand. A few streets over, the scene flips. Sleek studios. Clean lines. Romance on one end, razor sharp minimalism on the other and everything in between. The best part is you are not scrolling through samples or waiting on updates from another continent. You are sitting across from the designer. You are touching fabrics, pinning ideas, changing your mind. It is collaborative. It is personal. It is made around you. Here are 10 Thai bridal brands to know – especially if that big day's on the horizon.

Before stepping onto a stage, Lisa – Thailand’s most celebrated export and the weapon in BLACKPINK’s arsenal – paused for a brief exchange with Louk Golf, the English tutor turned pop-culture fixture. He handed her a simple gift: a hand-woven bamboo fan, the words ‘ruay nat’ woven boldly across its surface. In the southern dialect, the phrase translates to ‘super rich’, a tongue-in-cheek blessing that doubles as a knowing wink to her global success. He added a message at once earnest and self-aware: ‘I will always be one of your biggest fans.’ It sounds almost too neat – the world’s most bankable pop star holding up a provincial handicraft – but Lisa’s career has been built on making such coincidences feel inevitable. She only has to pose with a toy or glance at a snack for it to become a trend. The Labubu doll, once a niche collector’s item, became an international obsession after she was seen cradling one. In the strange economy of fandom, her choices can swell into global movements. A woven fan from southern Thailand may be next.   Photograph: Dasdnn     The object itself is hardly glamorous. For generations, Thais used fans like these to stir flames in village kitchens or to fight the heavy heat of April afternoons. They were practical, cheap, unfussy. Bamboo, abundant and forgiving, was split into strips and threaded into shape. Patterns grew more elaborate over time but the purpose remained humble: something to keep the air moving. Now, by sheer accident of celebrity proximity, the fan has slipped into the category of soft power – cultural artefacts that travel not by trade negotiations but by charm. The particular fan in Lisa’s hand came from Dasdnn, a small shop in Songkhla. The city itself is layered with ruins, shrines and a shoreline dotted with fishing boats, but Dasdnn leans away from postcards and into parody. Four friends opened it as a kind of anti-souvenir store, its interior styled like a village general shop. Their motto, ‘Something that is so common.’    Photograph: Dasdnn Photograph: Dasdnn   Photograph: Dasdnn Their catalogue speaks to this philosophy. Alongside bamboo fans in slang-splashed versions – ruay nat (super rich), yenn nat (super cool), bai jai nat (very happy) – they sell elephant pants refashioned as ‘mermaid pants’, socks patterned with mudskippers, and shrimp crisps cheekily labelled ‘mermaid meat’. There is satire at play, but also affection. In treating banality with reverence, they argue that culture is not locked inside temples or festivals but sprawled across the unremarkable. The store sits between equally idiosyncratic neighbours: Nusantara, a record shop with ties to a beloved listening bar, and Grandpa Never Drunk Alone, a watering hole whose name alone feels like a short story. Together they form a pocket of Songkhla where nostalgia, humour and local identity intersect – a reminder that provincial cities, so often flattened into ‘heritage’ or ‘beach towns’, are far messier and more alive.   Photograph: Dasdnn   Lisa’s fan, then, is not just a meme in waiting but a bridge. It joins the handmade with the hyper-global, the village craft with the Instagram story. What Dasdnn attempts – reframing ordinariness as desirable – is exactly what her gesture achieved in a second. The image of her holding the fan elevates an object once confined to markets and kitchens into something worth coveting. There is something faintly comic about the whole scene. A superstar whose choreography is dissected by millions holds up the very tool Thai grandmothers once used to keep mosquitoes at bay. Yet perhaps this absurdity is the point. Culture, at its liveliest, is rarely dignified. It spills from the street, the stall, the side alley. Dasdnn’s fans remind us that what we dismiss as mundane can resurface, with the right push, as emblematic. What Lisa picks up next is anyone’s guess – another toy, a snack, perhaps a shirt bought off a roadside stall. But the fan already demonstrates how cultural currents can shift overnight. A small shop in Songkhla did not set out to conquer the global market, but its objects now travel further than its founders could have plotted. Fame and folkcraft collided, and for a moment the world looked at bamboo differently.

Exciting news for fashion lovers in Thailand and Southeast Asia! French fashion powerhouse MM6 Maison Margiela has officially launched its first standalone store in the heart of Bangkok at Siam Discovery. MM6 Maison Margiela, the cool and contemporary diffusion line of the iconic Maison Margiela, has been redefining fashion since its launch in 1997. Created by Belgian designer Martin Margiela and Jenny Meirens, MM6 is all about bending the rules with deconstructed garments, visible seams, inside-out tailoring, and asymmetric silhouettes. It’s edgy, rebellious, and effortlessly chic – perfect for making a bold statement with just one standout piece. Step inside the new MM6 space, and you’ll be transported into a world where fashion meets art and architecture! Black lacquered concrete flows through the lower walls, contrasted with sleek white LED tubes for a dramatic interplay of textures. Recycled and upcycled materials take center stage, with fabric panels and cellulosic waste transformed into sculptural elements. The minimalist aesthetic and striking design mirror MM6’s ethos – turning everyday concepts into extraordinary creations. If you’re a fan, it’s well worth a visit, as the store presents its Avant Première Spring/Summer 2025 collection – a fresh take on classic clothing, transformed into bold and new shapes. From ready-to-wear and accessories to footwear, leather goods, and jewelry, the all-gender collections offer something for everyone.

Cult coffee shop Café Kitsuné is set to open the first Bangkok branch on the ground floor of Emquartier by the third quarter of this year. Starting off as a record label in France, Maison Kitsuné is globally known among style-and-music-savvy individuals for Paris-meet-Tokyo fashion influence. The clothing brand has imprinted its presence in fashion destinations around the world from Paris, to Tokyo and to New York. The brand is recognized by the iconic fox logo (kitsuné means fox in Japanese) which symbolizes versatility, taking a reference from Japanese mythology in which foxes are believed to possess the ability to shape shift into human. Replacing DVF clothing store at Emquartier will be the new brick-and-mortar store of Maison Kitsuné. A part of the fashion retail will be taken over by Café Kitsuné – the café spin-off of the chic fashion label. Few details are available about the food and drinks provided at the café but we expect the iconic fox-shaped snacks served alongside quality-brewed coffee that you can enjoy while grooving to slick playlist. The store and the café are expected to open in third quarter of 2020. We will keep you up to date with more detail.   View this post on Instagram Keep your daily drinks warm longer with our Café Kitsuné Tumblers ♨️ A post shared by Café Kitsuné (@cafekitsune) on May 12, 2020 at 2:16am PDT