Vibrant colors, inspired by Chin people's aesthetics, dominate the collection. Photos Provided to China Daily

Phisit Jongnarangsin, Christian Develter, Sakxit Pisalasupongs and Peter Smits at the Tube Gallery.

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.

The facial tattoos of Myanmar's Chin women have been transformed into forward thinking fashion. Gao Zhuyuan in Bangkok explores the concept.

Some critics say fashion is just the endless recycling of grandma's outfits and tailoring them to the times.

For Christian Develter, the Bangkok-based Belgian artist, the aesthetic in his works is based on this philosophy and ancient Asian cultures.

Develter traveled to many Chinese cities in his early years and is now staying in Thailand. He held the 2012 Chinese New Year by Develter solo exhibition in Thailand.

His latest show, Chin: Unmasked collection, kicked off in January at Tube Gallery in Bangkok. The paintings are inspired by Chin tribeswomen with facial tattoos - a vanishing tradition. They embrace the old fashion philosophy, but also came up with a new fusion.

The three-in-one collection was unveiled among a heady mix of cocktails, music and neon signs, silk, sequins, vibrant-colored dresses and models with facial tattoos inspired by tribal women from the north of Myanmar.

"It is about the tattooed faces of the Chin women, it is about my paintings and it is about fashion, so it is three stories in one collection," says Develter, who spent weeks traveling among the Chin tribes last year.

Some women in China from the Derung ethnic group in Yunnan also have facial tattoos from the same origin as the Chin in Myanmar, but there are only around 40 who still retain the tattoos.

Unlike Develter who has met the tattooed women, the Thai fashion designers and founders of Tube Gallery, Phisit Jongnarangsin and Sakxit Pisalasupongs, only saw Develter's pictures.

"It was such a surprise to us," Sakxit says.

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.

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.

(China Daily 02/17/2013 page13)