"Basically, I eat a lot of green beans, and one day I was at the hospital and thought they looked a bit like mini IV tubes,” he says. The inspiration for some of the collections stand out pieces - a cropped cream two-piece suit dripping with thick crystal-tipped fronds, for example - is altogether more mundane. Not all of Strong’s pieces conceal such dirty double entendres though. “There's also a relationship between uniform and strength, too." It's something that makes me feel secure because it's so familiar,” he says, with that sense of familiarity conjuring the same sense of confidence for him as the comfort of a blanket’s embrace. “It’s inspired by the uniform my dad wore to work. An oddly utilitarian silhouette in a collection seemingly committed to the idea of comfort, it occupies a particular soft spot for Strong. There’s also a mandarin-collared jacket with neat panels of white chiffon gauze extending from darts on the shoulder down each breast. With another pair, artful draping creates the illusion that one pair has been hastily pulled on over another. The ‘third leg trousers’ from his 2018 Central Saint Martins MA collection return, with an extra leg extending from the hip as if to shield an immobilised leg behind. The rounded silhouettes and blanket-like cottons are counterpoised by the sharpness of Strong’s tailoring, offering a more familiar take on ‘confident’ menswear. “Some of the coats and jackets are made from blankets and throws, they’re perfect for wrapping around yourself when you sit.” A similar logic of making clothes to accompany you through your convalescence results in viscose-blend shirt-and-trouser sets, their aggressive creases suggesting how once-crisp pyjamas could look after several bedridden months. “I always play around with the idea of health issues, partly because it's something I grew up with - I’ve spent a large part of my life in and out of hospitals,” he explains. Inspired by the designer's own extensive experiences of being bed-bound on account of illness, its silhouette draws upon the comfort you seek when under physical duress. A single-breasted cream mackintosh is a case in point, with its shoulders that slope from the reassuring weight of the cotton from which it’s cut. That doesn’t, however, mean that the collection's health-first narrative is at all concealed. Thematic details accent, rather than dominate, the collection’s silhouettes, rendering the clothes accessible to many more than those who directly empathise with Strong’s experiences. That its poignant theme isn’t necessarily evident on first viewing is a testament to the designer’s impressive subtlety. For this collection, I played around with things that relate to that spiritual heritage," he says, darting across his Dalston studio to pick out a tan jersey polo neck, around which bands of chiffon in a pastel rainbow of hues are tautly bound. “Typically, they have seven colours wrapped around them. Those trees, by the way, are easily identifiable by the strips of coloured fabric tied about their trunks and boughs.
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“Basically, we believe that when people have stress about luck, whatever the reason, they should pray to the spirits thought to live in certain trees,” the designer continues.
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“People really believe in spirituality and there are a lot of traditions and superstitions.” Indeed, the country’s wealth of rituals and customs associated with bringing about good fortune are well documented, even beyond its borders - ‘spirit trees’ being among the better known.
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“Thailand can be such a funny place,” he explains. Luck is something that Strong Theveethivarak, the London-based designer behind Strongthe, has always held dear - in no small part due to his Thai roots.