World 112

The late Thai King Bhumibol, spread his self-sufficiency ideologies during the late 1970s, post the Economic Depression in Thailand. He encouraged his people to be moderate and self-sufficient with their lifestyle and values to survive such tough times. The excessive greed and discontentment felt across the world due to capitalism and negative impacts brought about by mass production and consumption of garments has led to global textile waste and pollution.

The philosophies of moderation, reasonableness and resourcefulness were then spread to countries who went through the same economical issues as Thailand like Vietnam, Myanmar and Singapore in World 112 – whereby people would be self-sufficient and would create their own garments made from the fabrics of naturality including fabric made from the stalks of rice.

Thailand’s economy is largely dependent on rice, and it is the world’s second largest exporter of rice. Rice is thus a staple in Thailand. Once harvested the stalks are converted into yarn and weaved to create a sustainable and modular garment – when thrown it goes back to the soil acting as fertilizer – a completed circle.

This World was contributed by Yeo Tian Poh, Amanda Teoh, Vrinda Maheshwari, Chloe Ysabel Tan and Pang Chong Jia Wyona (located in Singapore and India) using a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence which allows others to share and adapt the work in any medium and for any purpose, providing that they credit the author and share their material using the same Creative Commons licence.