Who am I in the world of fashion?
I am nobody. I am just a regular guy who lives, observes, follows, avoids, breathes and sometimes eats fashion as a form of art. I believe in one’s unique sense of style, and love having one of my own.
In terms of my sense of style and fashion, I credit my mother who, when I was a child, always dressed me in all-white tennis outfits. To this day, I like sporty, preppy styles and I trace that appreciation back to those tennis whites.
In my culture, there is a lot of pressure to fit in and not to stand out from the crowd. My desire to be unique and to stand out started to show in high school, where I was the only boy wearing black leather shoes with the school uniform. Everyone else was wearing sneakers. When I showed up at school wearing my leather lace-ups, I received disapproving looks from other students. Why should I be the same as others when there is room to express who I am?
As for my name, “Bino” is my nickname. My mother spent two years studying in Italy before giving birth to me. She chose Bino, short for bambino (“baby” in Italian) as my nickname. Since my nickname has twice the syllables of my given name, Tawn, others stopped using it once I entered grade school.
To this day, I regret that as I always liked the name Bino. Having an unused nickname is like having a key to a secret box. Using the nickname, I can unlock different possibilities and different personalities, imagining and re-imagining myself living various lives different from the one I lead every day.
Now, I am sitting in my own little corner in my hometown Bangkok documenting what’s running through my mind in terms of style and fashion. I hope that one day these ruminations about style and fashion will unlock one of those imagined lives and open up different possibilities for me.
