FASHION photos on Flickr

In my second year as a runway model at the same venue, I was going to be walking solo and making two complete turns on the catwalk to show off my outfit, another pink dress. This task filled me with importance as I was coached during rehearsals on how to make those turns—slowly and stopping in the pose, toe pointed. At the last minute a friend of my grandmother's asked me if I would take with me her daughter, Pat, the eldest of her two children. I did not want to because this was my gig, but I knew I could not refuse, since she was an important friend of my grandmother's from her work with the government. Not to mention that the red vinvyl outfit was the ultimate in chic. So I took Pat's hand and walked her down the runway with me, but she ruined all my turns because she thought it was a game and was swinging around very fast. It was all I could do to keep her in check.

Nevertheless, my diplomacy seemed to endear me to both Pat and her mother and I was always invited to their house and out to dinner whenever I visited Bangkok while my grandmother was alive. Pat's mother spoke excellent French because her father had been the ambassador to France. At her home, she had in her garden, an antique Thai house. It had been deconstructed and transported from the countryside to be rebuilt in her yard. You can do that with Thai houses quite easily because they are built as panels that are pegged together. The effect was utterly charming because it was on stilts and she had it installed over the pond and there was a traditional Thai boat moored to one of the pilings under it. I was invited to a lunch at the house for her friends who met there to practice their French. My middling French was put to the test, but it was my father's Leica that drew more attention. One participant pointed out that I was trying to take pictures with an antique camera.

Some years later I visited Thailand with my then girlfriend who also spoke French and we were again wined and dined by the ambassador's daughter. The two expressed surprise at how authentic the other's accent was. "It is very unusual to hear such good French especially from an American", said the ambassador's daughter. "And also difficult for a Thai," my girlfriend pointed out, quite unaware of how she was outranked. Neither seemed insulted by the assumptions of the other.

This is another press photo printed on glossy 5 x 7 paper which seemed very impressive at the time. I have also mastered the art of folding my socks down so they don't look so nerdy. I remember this dress being quite special, too, as it was made for a wedding, a Western style wedding at an actual church though the couple was Thai. I was one of the bride's attendants with another girl in the same dress. We carried white baskets so we could throw rose petals in the aisle.

Fashion Editorial by Aleksandar Savin

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