Word: bangkok
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...1980s and '90s, an unassuming Thai boutique called Greyhound did respectable business in Bangkok's Siam Center shopping mall, selling reasonably priced clothes that melded international urban chic with local tastes. For its co-owner and designer, an advertising executive named Bhanu Inkawat, the shop was little more than a weekend hobby. But in 2003, with Thailand starting to become more fashion conscious, Bhanu saw an opportunity: he quit his day job and poured his energy into Greyhound. Today, Bhanu, 50, presides over a growing style empire with 12 designers, 14 clothing stores and seven caf?s in Bangkok, franchises...
...manufacture of apparel invented elsewhere, the country has lately been generating fashion designers like China churns out brand-name knockoffs. "I can count about 30 new designers on the market in just the last year or so," says Anna Limpichart, a fashion-show organizer responsible for next month's Bangkok Fashion Week, an annual runway showcase for local designers. Even seen-it-all international cognoscenti are taking notice. After attending last year's Bangkok Fashion Week, Paris-based fashion critic Diane Pernet said she was stuck by the "amazing enthusiasm" of Thai designers. "You don't see anything like that...
...During the early 1990s Sondhi's Manager Media Group owned an assortment of magazines, newspapers and satellite channels. In Bangkok and other Asian cities, Sondhi was a fixture on the social circuit. "I was a very arrogant young man at that time," he recalls. In Bangkok, he met another upcoming media tycoon. Thaksin and he "were never friends, only acquaintances," Sondhi insists. But soon they were doing business together. In 1992, Thaksin invested in the share offering of IEC, a mobile-phone handset distributor that Sondhi had bought and which sold handsets to Shin subsidiary...
...clear why the two men fell out, but last September a talk show co-hosted by Sondhi was canceled by state television after he accused Thaksin of abusing his power. Sondhi began staging weekly outdoor shows, drawing tens of thousands to a park in Bangkok after work on Fridays. He aired allegations of corruption against Thaksin and his family, sparking criminal and civil lawsuits from the Prime Minister. But the suits were dropped after Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej said in an annual televised birthday speech on Dec. 4 that government officials should not over-react to criticism or consult...
...WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? The Prime Minister says he will resign only if the King wishes it, and such a royal intervention in politics is extremely unlikely. Bangkok will probably see more street protests, but, says James Klein, country representative of the Asia Foundation in Thailand, "I don't think this is going to get out of hand...