Tribal chin chic

Chin woman with leopard-dot tattoo, one of the Chin designs inspired by nature. Christian Develter / for China Daily

A model with a facial tattoo depicting women from Hkin, a Chin tribe.

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The facial tattoos get an urban look after Develter modernizes them in his paintings. The two designers extracted the tattoo from one of the artist's early Chin paintings and produced what they call an "avant-garde mask".

Then they processed the mask using a computer program, which generated graphic patterns that were printed on fabric, before being cut.

Develter's paintings are integrated into the design through these graphic patterns. Some of the dresses show the woman's tattooed faces, while in others the faces have been inverted against an ocean-blue background that produces an ocean-mirror effect.

Besides ocean blue, vibrant colors such as lime and red-violet dominate the collection.

"He (Christian) also showed us the colors Chin people use on their garments, and the materials they weave like cotton. So we used those colors to create our collection," Sakxit says.

Aside from the tattooed faces and graphic patterns, butterflies are another highlight of the collection.

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They interpret the winged veins of butterflies as an emblem of beauty, which the designers believe is similar to the facial tattoos of Chin women.

All three artists involved say the collection is a collaborative process.

"We respect his talent. We showed him what we were going to do," Sakxit says.

Develter responds: "I let them do whatever they wanted and when they finished something they sent me the picture and I was always happy with the result."

When Phisit and Sakxit went to Develter's studio last year, they did so to hold a fashion show at his teakwood warehouse on the shore of Chao Phraya River.

After they saw the paintings, they decided to go one step further and make a collection based on them, Develter says.

In July, the designers took the collection to Who's Next, the biannual fashion fair held in Paris, and it was not until November that the collection made its debut at the studio in Bangkok.

It also became an opportunity for the tradition of facial tattoos to be introduced to a larger audience.

"People have good and bad impressions of this, you know, women getting these kinds of facial tattoos. For Chin people, according to Develter, they feel like they are somebody having these tattoos on their faces, as they indicate their social status," Sakxit says.

"I am not exactly saying we are promoting it. What I am saying is we should show them to the world, so more people know more about them and perhaps see the same beauty we do."

More than social status, the facial tattoos are also indicative of the women's origins. People can tell where a Chin woman is from the design of the facial tattoos, says Develter, who is planning another trip to Myanmar.

Contact the writer at gaozhuyuan@chinadaily.com.cn.