Having persuaded her to make the visit, a servant brought her a basin full of water. She changed her dress and powdered her face with scented sandalwood powder. She neatly combed her hair. pinned with a gold flower. Entwined with a jeweled hairpin and gold egg-plant flowers. Wearing long gold necklace decorated with diamonds and jewels. A filigree of jewels, bracelets on both arms. Wearing rings of diamonds, black and green sapphires, scented yellow shoulder shawl. Her parents were taking her to the engagement, leaving the house in a large entourage.
The verse describes how Kwan Saenkamman and his wife, Ngernyueng, took their daughter, Laothong, to be introduced to Pan and, at the same time, mirrors how the Thai have always been meticulous about their dress and personal ornaments. Observing details of the lifestyles of bygone ages, it is noticeable that the Thais were always very fond of personal ornaments. From birth, a child would receive gold ornaments as gifts for being born into a family and from relatives and family friends
When they reach marriageable age, whether formerly or presently, dowries are usually in the form of ornaments. So too, in the greeting of a favorite daughter-in-law, ornaments will please all. In old age, it is also ornaments, that are equitably distributed to children and grandchildren, while favorite pieces will adorn them when they have passed away. It can be surmised, therefore, that ornaments are the fifth factor in the life of a Thai, since time immemorial. The popularity of personal ornaments never changes, but designs do change, more or less, following changes in the culture of each age. A bracelet made from a hollowed stone or animal bone in the pre-historic age evolved, eventually into metallic gold decorated with colored jewels in various designs of the Ayutthaya period. Visiting the Three Kings Museum in Ayutthaya. there is a display of ornaments of high society people, including necklaces, pendants and bracelets. Imagine living in the Ayutthaya era up to the Ratanakosin era, when the Thai still wore only loin cloths and shoulder shawls and walked bare-foot. You would encounter high society ladies wearing personal ornaments, adorning arms and legs, necklaces overlapping their shoulder shawl, with ornamental belts for their loincloths. These same trends are apparent in present day fashions. The designs on the ornaments of those eras also reflect the way of life which was more closely attached to nature. They also reveal an insight into what was beautiful in the eyes of Thais at that time. Rather than copy nature exactly, they devised and recreated designs closely affiliated to the delicate forms and beauty of nature.
Approaching the age of revolution in dress, the Thais gradually began to adopt a combination of traditional eastern designs, influenced by western fashions. In lieu of shoulder shawls, high society ladies now began wearing a silk shawl over a Victorian, western-style blouse, the so-called "leg-of-mutton" blouse. This resulted in a change in necklace and pendant attire to the western breast brooches, securing the silk shawl draped over the blouse. Choker ribbons and pearl necklaces were also popular as ornaments, similar to western fashion at the time. Leg adornment gradually disappeared as socks and shoes became more common. Today, the mix between Thai and western personal ornaments provides greater freedom to mix-and-match than ever before, and aptly reflect the Thai ability to adapt to change.
This however, does not mean that the Thai style of personal ornaments is losing
its value. Instead, the unique beauty of Thai personal ornaments has proved
to be a valuable asset to latter day designers, originating many attractive
innovations. For example, Cartier, a world leading fashion brand name, adopted
Thai headbands as an inspiration for its headgear designs as far back as 1 931.
At present, the world fashion trend has turned once again to the east for inspiration,
which marries well with Thailand's objective of creating Bangkok as a center
of fashion for the region. Under Thai government policy, this will provide additional
impetus and opportunities for Thai designers, using the Kingdoms wide spectrum
of natural resources, to create fashionable designs for a wide range of personal
ornaments that will reflect the unique Thai characteristics and close union
with nature.