Undercover agent silks.
“The White Lotus” Season 3 has a connection to a real-life unsolved thriller concerning the disappearance of a suspected American spy residing in Thailand — and all of it has to do with the present’s costumes.
“White Lotus” costume designer Alex Bovaird revealed that for Season 3, she turned to a Thai trend model based by an American intelligence officer-turned-silk service provider named Jim Thompson, who vanished and not using a hint in 1967 after taking a stroll within the Malaysian highlands.
“There is a brand [in Thailand] called Jim Thompson that we loved,” Bovaird completely instructed The Put up. “It was began by an American whose legend is that he might have been a spy for the CIA, and that he fell in love with Thai textiles and opened a manufacturing facility.
“His disappearance is a mystery as he walked into the jungle one day and was never found,” she continued.
Thompson’s textile firm, which he based in 1948, as we speak has expanded into luxurious items together with ready-to-wear clothes that appears proper at dwelling on the “The White Lotus” friends.
“They have incredible home furnishings and gorgeous men’s and women’s resort wear,” Bovaird stated of the model. “It is a bit more classic and has more international styling, so we were able to blend it into the American guests’ wardrobe.”
Among the many “White Lotus” solid members wearing Jim Thompson garments on Season 3: Parker Posey, who performs Southern matriarch Victoria Ratliff, dons one of many model’s silk kimono kaftan attire; Christian Friedel — the lodge’s supervisor, Fabian — wears an orange-and-white-striped silk and rayon Mandarin-style shirt; and Natasha Rothwell, “White Lotus” Season 1 returnee Belinda, shimmers in a silk scarf kaftan gown. The gadgets are all accessible on-line and retail for $350, $170 and $290, respectively.
Thompson ended up in Bangkok on the finish of World Battle II after working for the Workplace of Strategic Companies (OSS), the predecessor to the CIA. Although he then centered on constructing his silk enterprise, which was bolstered after he provided the materials for the Broadway run of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I,” some theorize that he by no means stopped being a spy and was probably even a double agent.
Occurring simply 10 months earlier than the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, Thompson’s disappearance triggered a large search effort. Over 300 Malaysian troopers together with British troops and Royal Military Air Corps helicopters — to not point out a handful of clairvoyants — ended up becoming a member of the operation.
Conspiracy theories about what occurred to Thompson started virtually as quickly as he disappeared and, regardless of being declared lifeless in absentia by a Thai courtroom in 1974, persist to today.
Thompson’s influence on the Thai silk business has additionally endured. “Thompson wasn’t just a silk merchant; he was a visionary who transformed the lives of thousands of Thai weavers,” textile skilled Dr. Siriporn Ruengsakul instructed the Thai Examiner in 2023.
“The White Lotus” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO and Max.
