AsiaLIFE

The Cambodian king of fashion is back, bringing haute couture to the capital. He won’t be living up to his nickname though, as we’ve found buttons in his new limited edition collection.

Maknorith Oum has certainly had an interesting life. From refugee, to celebrated fashion designer, to returnee, and fashion designer yet again, he undoubtedly has one or two stories to tell. And to top it off he is cousin to the current King Norodom Sihamoni. “He is like a brother, because we were raised together since we were five years old. We are very, very close,” he says of his relationship with the King.

Oum, or Chantha as he is known as among friends, left Cambodia in 1973 as a refugee. “We were meant to leave in 1970, but then my father was jailed,” he says, referring to the effects of the Lon Nol coup. “My father was jailed for 3 years, 3 months and 22 days – I remember,” he says. At that point, Oum was 19 years old. After his father’s release the family fled to Paris, France, where Oum as a fluent French-speaker immediately began studying at the Sorbonne, and later at the University of Fine Arts.

Rising Star in Fashion

“Whilst at the University of Fine Arts, I met a friend who was modelling for Guy Laroche. She saw my designs, and she introduced me and showed my designs to him. So from that time I became involved in the fashion business,” Oum explains. He spent his first few years designing jewellery and accessories for Laroche, then had a spell at Givenchy, before moving to the ready-to-wear sector. By 1981, he was ready to open his own shop.

“My clothes were inspired by Khmer fashion that uses only one piece of material that is wrapped. From that, my first collection used only tying, no buttons, no zips,” he says. “It was a great success at that time”. His first collection earned him the name Mr No Buttons, and he became part of the crowd of young, upcoming designers in the French circles. Oum himself admits those were “wild times”. “I had about 50 outlets in France and 17 abroad,” he says, though by describing the times were “wild” Oum is most likely not only referring to sales.

Return to the Kingdom

“I actually didn’t want to come back to Cambodia after all the tragedy here, but my family came because the King asked them to,” he says. “My first time back in Cambodia was in 1996. I spent only one month, and then came back definitely in 1999”. The Parisian fashion designer’s first impressions of the country he had not seen for over two decades were not favourable. “I was scared! I saw a lot of guns, so many people were armed, and the city didn’t have any streetlights. Compared to what I was used to, it was like another world,” he says.

Nevertheless he stayed, spending his time designing high-end interior decoration products in hand-woven silk, as he felt Cambodia was not ready for him to continue his work as a fashion designer. Some ten years on, things have changed. “This year, I wanted to come back to the fashion scene,” he says. “I want to compete with other people again in Europe and the US,” he adds, noting that if the Japanese can compete on foreign markets despite being based in Asia, so can he.

Oum is in the process of finalising his new limited summer 2010 collection, to hopefully be completed in late September. He won’t be living up to his nickname though, as he admits some of the upcoming designs will in fact feature buttons. Producing the clothes in Cambodia has posed its own challenges. “Like when I first started here [with interior decoration], I have to control the production,” he sighs, explaining that the local level of skill remains relatively low. Nevertheless, all his clothes are locally made, though the patterns for the women’s collection are cut in Paris.

“I’m excited to be back in fashion, at the end of 2010 I want to participate in the fashion weeks in Paris and New York,” he says. “I have no expectations, I just want to be on the scene again, that’s all. But I don’t want big orders any more. Here, mostly we do things by hand, so we cannot take big orders,” he says.

Building Local Capacity

Oum is however also keen on sharing his skills and knowledge, and help develop the arts and design sector in Cambodia. “I want to train young Cambodians in fashion. My goal is to open a free school and ask people who have retired from the fashion industry to come here and train the young,” he says. “Some of the young are very interested in fashion. I’ve met a few of them who are studying in Bangkok, but they’re not open, they only have information from Thailand – so they copy only,” he says. “I told them of course you can copy at first, but then you have to bring what you have inside, what you get inspiration from”. He himself is inspired by different lines, materials and traditional Khmer clothes and patterns.

Oum is a truly multi-talented individual, designing not only haute couture and ready-to-wear clothes, but also tableware and jewellery. In addition, he runs tapas bar Pavot on street 57. “The tapas is only a hobby,” he says, explaining that the stylish lounge downstairs from his soon to be opened boutique is simply meant to be a space where men can have drink while their women shop upstairs.

Additionally, Oum was recently given the title of “Ambassador near the Royal Cabinet” by his cousin the King. “It means I have to bring people there,” he says of the duties associated with title. In short, should you fancy an audience with the King, get pally with Oum.