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Friday, February 8, 2008

Bangkok mourns in black

January 2008

Robinson department store replaced its usual colorful displays with clothing in black and white for people to purchase for mourning the passing of HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana.

Black and white is being seen more on Bangkok streets as people commence a period of mourning for Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana (elder sister of Thai king), who passed away on Wednesday, January 2, morning.
Sky train passengers were in their mourning clothes, in sharp contrast to a few weeks before when they wore colorful clothing and glittering accessories for the festive Christmas and New Year.
In center of Bangkok like Siam Square and along Sukhumvit Road, all shops were prominently displaying black and white clothes, now in demand from customers.
Robinson department store replaced its usual colorful displays with clothing in black and white for people to purchase for mourning the passing of HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana.Big department stores replaced their usual displays with mourning wear. Black and white outfits dominated the men's and women's sections at all main department stores in Bangkok.
"It's our policy to mourn the Princess. Colorful collections from Christmas and New Year seasons have been replaced by black and white, as well as dark colors," said vice president of marketing of “Robinson”, one of the leading department stores. Moreover, she said all Robinson's 21 stores nationwide would do the same.
During working days, all stores were crowded at lunchtime by people who want to buy black and white clothes. "I don't have enough white shirts for work, so I bought four for this mourning period. I intend to mourn for 100 days," a young man shopping at Robinson said.
“Central”, the most famous department store chain, has a similar policy. All 15 branches are toning down displays. All branches during this period, staff were busy replacing displays with black and white.
High-end store, Siam Paragon also joined in, taking festive season displays down.
At trendy stores like Siam Discovery Centre and Siam Centre we can still find lively outfits. But, black and white is the most wanted flavor. Even the “George Reche” brand is encouraging people to wear black and white for a period of 100 days. Fans of the label received a mobile text message informing them it would have mourning wear available.
At the same time, Thai television stations interrupted their regular programming to announce the death of the princess and show footage of her life. Newscasters appear on TV all wears black.
Most entertainment programs on TV are postponed including soap operas and variety shows. While Thai TV Channel 3 aired its color Chinese series in black and white. In addition, most public buses have put the bus numbers on the black and white plates.