Kris Yensudchai

Creative Director, Mae Fah Luang Foundation Under Royal Patronage

Industry : The Arts

Dr Kris is a Silpathorn Award 2021 laureate for design, and is known for his avant-garde and innovative adaptations of hill tribe inspired textiles. Trained first in interior design, he switched fields to study fashion at Marangoni Fashion Institute in Italy, and later joined the foundation where he has created countless award- winning collections which focus on sustainability such as upcycled yarns from PET bottles. This yarn also formed the basis of his latest collection Re-Pleats Plastic collection based on the pha khao ma Thai multi-purpose cloth, which won the DEmark award 2021. His passions include teaching as a way of sharing with others, his family and restoring the natural environment which informs every manner of his work. His favourite artists are Sting and Stanley Kubrick, while his architectural background regards Rudolfsky’s “Architecture without Architects” as the go-to tome. Like his own work, it emphasises the artistic, functional and cultural richness of architectural design.