Young and Hip in Bangkok

The NY Times reports on the Bangkok cool quotient. It's one of my favorite cities:

By MATT GROSS Published: November 20, 2005

TO the untrained eye, the Au Bon Pain at J Avenue, a strip mall on Soi Thonglor in Bangkok, doesn't look like much. On a recent evening, a group of university students in jeans and studded belts were "studying" their textbooks and showing off their new cellphones. At another table, four office types were examining floor plans. A mother brought her children in for snacks. A young woman quietly smoked a cigarette.

It could have been any Au Bon Pain in any minimall in any city on the planet. But this wasn't just another fast-food franchise. This was, according to Krissanaphong Kiattisak, the epicenter of creativity in Bangkok.

And Kris, as everyone calls him, should know better than perhaps anyone in this city of 5.6 million people: He is the editor in chief of Wallpaper* Thailand, the new spinoff of the international design bible (and only the second foreign franchise, after Russia), and this cafe - a wide-open place that feeds the see-and-be-seen desires of hip residents - has become something of a second office to him and his staff.

"You can sit here all day and talk to photographers and stylists," said Mr. Krissanaphong, a former architect and interior designer whose response to the city's overwhelming heat that day was to wear a blue-and-gray striped sweater.

Just then, a group of young men with stylish black glasses sat down outside and waved through the plate-glass window at Mr. Krissanaphong and his creative director, Nontawat (Moo) Charoenchasri, and editorial coordinator, Chidlada (Louise) Chananon.

"We know everybody," Mr. Krissanaphong said, smiling.

These days in Bangkok, "everybody" is a significantly larger group than it once was. The people you meet at parties, clubs and cafes seem to be graphic designers, or architects, or fashion photographers, or producers of TV commercials and short films. (Or they give parties for those people.) What's more, their influence is starting to be felt far beyond the borders of Thailand.

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