Inside Dior’s ‘Gold House’ in Bangkok, a spectacular celebration of Thai art and craft

In an age when the ubiquity of mass production trumps the handmade at almost every turn, it says something that there are those who still stubbornly champion the artisanal approach. Exhibit A is Dior Gold House, the Parisian house’s new concept store in Bangkok’s tony Phloem Chit quarter. Located across the road from Bangkok’s glitzy Central Embassy Mall and the Park Hyatt, it is a dreamy interlude amid the city’s chaotic bustle.

After the critical artistic and commercial success of the first in a line of new concept stores that opened two years ago in Seoul – a fusion, says the house, of ‘lifestyle, design and fashion’ – the question on every Dior addict’s lips was just how and where the venerable French house would pull off its sophomore act.

Inside ‘Dior House’ Bangkok, Thailand

On every metric, Dior Gold House is a remarkable conceit given that in February, the entire site was a carpark. Now transformed into a literal oasis of traveller’s palms, dense tropical landscaping and water gardens from which rises a spectacular simulacrum of Dior’s Paris HQ at 30 Avenue Montaigne, the entire facade, complete with mansard roof, indented with 300 faux windows and clad in a million handmade gold mosaic tiles.

Everyone is tight-lipped about how much the project cost, but it must have been a pretty penny and a reflection, perhaps, of the fact that the Thai luxury goods market is worth nearly $3.5bn.

Right at the offset, hats off to the prodigiously talented Luca Albero, Dior’s visual merchandising creation and image director, the affable Italian setting the entire Dior universe of men’s and women’s wear, shoes, bags and accessories (only make-up is missing) in a gorgeous wonderland of botanical and marine gardens, and six sleekly staged room-sets of merchandise. Included in the mix are pieces from the most recent Scotland-inspired Cruise collection, alongside products exclusive to Bangkok, such as a demure Lady D-Joy bag in gold-toned calfskin, finished with pearl embroidery.

Scattered through the 2,500 sq m gardens and 800 sq m interiors are the works of seven Thai artists and artisans who contribute furniture and decorative features that almost outshine the merchandise in their devilishly intricate details and creative chutzpah. ‘I met the artists a few years ago at Milan Design Week,’ Albero says, ‘but we just never had a chance to work together until now.’

And what works they have produced. Every piece is a thoughtfully conceived, contemporary take on a traditional Thai craft and technique, whether Korakot Aromdee’s sensational three-dimensional flora and fauna, made entirely of bent bamboo, that adorn the walls of the Mauro Colagreco-helmed café; a collection of faux Lady Dior bags, each reimagined in finely wrought bamboo filigree by Savin Saima of Vassana; handsome, low-slung tables and chairs that architect Boonserm Premthada crafted out of treated elephant waste; or voluminous armchairs sheathed in coloured mirror mosaics by Eggarat Wongcharit.

Design delights abound. The eye hardly knows where to look. In one chamber, Albero clads the walls with concrete made from Carrara marble castoffs, which he then lightly embosses with Dior’s toile de Jouy pattern. In another, he constructs vitrines cut from recycled glass. Meanwhile, a dramatic dome capped with a star-shaped oculus inspired by Rome’s Pantheon is clad in the maison’s signature Cannage Montaigne pattern. ‘It’s all handstitched,’ Albero says, even as he pushes open an unmarked side door to reveal a secret VIP salon, a mood-lit cabin modelled after the original at 30 Avenue Montaigne with walls clad in thin bamboo strips.

To say that Dior Gold House is a work of art is to simplify the scale of the project. The commitment of both Albero – already hard at work on the third concept store that’s due to open in Tokyo next year – and the Thai creatives to the cause is staggering. Especially when you realise that this is intended to be only a temporary structure that will dismantled after just two or three years.

Visually, every inch is choreographed to neatly dovetail with both brand and merchandise. So much so that Olivier Bialobos, Dior’s deputy managing director of global communication and image, is moved to remark that as a retail proposition, the Dior Gold House is part of the marque’s storytelling, a vivid reflection of both its history and approach to fashion. But, above all else, if it’s not already clear, ‘it’s unique. It’s one of a kind. It is haute couture.’

1029 Ploenchit Road, Lumpini, Pathumwan, Bangkok.

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