When imagination surges for beautiful stories and artworks, our clothes – as part of all our lives, what story would they possibly wish to present? Venice Wanakornkul through her brand VeniceW takes us on a whimsical ride and fairytale, where clothes have their own spirit making the wearers part of an ongoing story while bringing the awareness for sustainability and an awakened lifestyle.

What’s your earliest childhood memory? What was the social and cultural experience you had growing up? How did you discover the world of fashion and what were your creative inspirations that influenced your work of today?

I grew up in Bangkok, Thailand, reading a lot of fantasy novels and adventure fiction, watching mainstream Hollywood movies, and my neighbours, I would hang out after school snacking on instant noodles or street food like corn on the cob while reading the manga where I discovered Vivienne Westwood, there was a sense of high-fantasy but also the tropical-ness that my younger self could relate to. I had a phase in my teens where I just wanted to dress like a pirate or dress up like a tourist visiting Thailand.

I lived nearby on the most famous street for travellers ‘Khaosan road’, imagine a tropical version of time square but much smaller and hotter or a bohemian version of Disneyland but without a ride, the old town street is trafficked with backpackers, summer clothes, street food, bars, night clubs, budget hotels | motels. You can get your hair braided, henna tattoos or it was normal to see a person dressed like Captain Jack Sparrow walking around, selling handmade jewellery. I am not saying that that was my inspiration, but I think the ritual of fun-dressing for daily life, or the idea of cosplaying a tourist perhaps feels one step closer to the magical realism that VeniceW is seeking, somewhere between fantastical events and everyday living.

You moved from New York to London, what has the change been like? One can see in your newest collection pigeons and the London Underground signs, do you like British culture and fashion?

Flying Bags, aka Pigeons, are the classic city birds who actually fly long-distance from city to city. They are the real travellers! (They always return home afterward too!)

Living in New York made me appreciate London as a city itself. For example, while the lucky British have a much longer history and heritage to tell, Americans on the other hand, build their own story, branding everything, every town, every state, anything could become a souvenir, most of the time without a specific reason. I enjoy this style of inventive storytelling; it is kind of dark humour in my humble opinion. And it wouldn’t be fun if our Flying Bag could be a globe-trotter, who accidentally turns itself into a souvenir?

Since VeniceW is based in London now. Our (simple) idea is that the London Flying Bag can only be purchased from a London-based store, although the online shopping age is making this feel less real, but it’s more like - let’s give it a try. The change between moving from New York to London?

To me, it is more about living in different ages and times. I am now a few years older, I understand what I am doing better, and if anything I am looking toward having a healthier life, more park life, yoga life, perhaps some pub life, and so on.

Talking about your newest collection ‘Vehiclewear’, walk us through the creative process, why did you want to have a digital show?

The whole collection was sketched while I was on the tube - a journey between home and studio. I have been thinking about things like; How does clothing, like yourself get around from place to place? How do shoes or bags commute? Are humans vehicles? Are we their car? Private driver? Or could a group of us be equal to being something like a bus? Or are we their energy… like fuel, oil, gas? It is trippy to think but is clothing the driver of us or are we the driver of our clothes?

For AW22 Vehicleswear, we actually showed both digital and physical, we wanted to find peace for the rabbit and the turtle (fast-paced fashion week versus slow daily life). We premiered a video with the British Fashion Council during London Fashion Week, and a month later, on St. Patrick celebration day, we installed a mixture of things: objects like queuing barriers, garments, people, and photographs at the Dinner Party Gallery in Clerkenwell.

What we like about the digital show is the group marriage between Fashion, Animation, and Music, it opens the gate for human audiences to visit VeniceW’s world. Where the physical exhibition was the opposite, it was more about hanging out or even just getting people out of their house on a sunny day! with VeniceW’s companions of course :D

Your brand's slogan is to be friends with your clothes, and in your previous collections you have created clothes with more than one usage. Where do these ideas come from?

It’s about looking at the good old things from a more fun and spontaneous perspective.

Your collection embraces a cute Scifi–Linen aesthetic through a mixture of materials, how do you choose your textiles and materials? What do you think about the environment?

The philosophical side of natural materials interests me the most, I feel like humans always go back to the serenity of nature in the end, 100% of the time. For example, most of us move to live in the countryside toward the end of our lives or we would feel like a hundred bucks after a camping trip in nature. We all felt very good looking at the sea and the sky, we all preferred to sit in the park instead of sitting indoors on a chair. Nature recharged us. It gave us energy. I mean, some people believe that trees have spirits. I think it makes a lot of sense for VeniceW to use natural materials as one of our ultimate goals is to give our garments a life-like quality.

For a more sci-fi example, in Star War or Dune where plants are becoming extinct and water is disappearing but somehow everyone in the movie would be wearing natural linen looking clothes, it is strange but interesting as in facts, linen fabric would require a lot of flax plants and tons load of water to produce, so to me, realistically natural garments is not possible to exist in the future but it is here at the very present, there is nothing more humane, more 2020s, and more now than natural textiles. It is a reminder of living in the present. And we should cherish them while we can.

What is the next step for VeniceW? What direction or project is being looked forward to?

We are looking forward to more 'in real life’ happenings; a London pop-up shop in the summer and hopefully another event for the next SS23 collection, which will be expanding our anthropomorphism territories, like how we have been giving accessories characters like Flying Bag, Flying Beanie, and Bobtail Shoes. It is time to give garments those qualities too - it will be a species of human-like hoodie I can only tell you that much!