---
node: fashion_thailand
type: fashion
slug: thailand_fashion
title: "Fashion history of Thailand"
lead: "Thai dress centres on unstitched, wrapped cloth: the wrapped lower garment (chong kraben) and skirt (pha nung, pha sin) worn by both sexes, and the shoulder cloth (sabai), refined with silk and gold in the Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin courts. The modern formal dress, chut thai, was codified in the 1960s."
published: 2026-07-28
updated: 2026-07-28
image_file: thailand_fashion.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Chulalongkorn_and_Queen_Saovabha_Bongsri.jpg"
image_author: "Unknown — King Chulalongkorn and Queen Saovabha (c. 1870)"
image_license: "Public domain"
change: "Created as a fashion sub-page under the history section, with a period image (thailand region)"
requester: internal
reason: "Per the owner's decision, fashion lives under each history era"
---

## Overview

Draped and wrapped cloth, influenced by India, the Khmer and the Mon, was the consistent frame of Thai dress. Under a Buddhist culture, dress combined simplicity with courtly splendour.

## The story of dress

After the silk and gold-brocade court dress of Ayutthaya, Westernisation advanced under Rattanakosin. Modern Thailand keeps everyday Western dress alongside the chut thai, the formal dress codified by Queen Sirikit, as a national costume.