Understanding Challenges, Get To Know the Creators: Panrapee Pukkajiam

IN THIS 21C ERA,

DIALOGUE, LEARNING, AND CHANGE CAN HAPPEN IN MANY FORMS ACROSS DIGITAL MEDIUMS. HERE IS A RAW AND GENUINE CONVERSATION WITH EMERGING CREATIVE VOICES BASED IN THAILAND.

THIS WAS A FACILITATED EXCHANGE WITH Panrapee Pukkajiam.

Q1: We love the advocacy and educational content that you put together on Tiktok, have you ever encountered negative feedback from the public about producing more garments in light of slow fashion advocacy? And how do you tackle that in practice (e.g. made to order only)?

 First of all, I would like to say I’m very grateful that my content has reached people that are not only in Thailand but also abroad. I have received both positive and negative feedback because showing what’s really going on behind the fashion industry isn’t the easiest content to create. Every time the word “industrial” comes up,  people will have a negative association with it because it has caused such a big negative impact on both people inside and outside of the garment industry. This is especially difficult for factories that support the slow fashion and sustainable fashion movements.  In people’s minds, it is difficult to reconcile the terms “sustainability” and “industrialism”.

That being said, all of the feedback I had received over the years has really helped my business to move in the right direction more efficiently. For example, we are now using 100% organic cotton in our factories and have no minimum requirement for our SME customers. We have also added ahow to order Infographic for better understanding of how our clients can order from us.

Q2: Thailand is known for fast and cheap clothing in the region, but on the flipside, beautiful artisanal craft and a good list of social enterprises as well. What is the response like by your viewers on TikTok as part of the slow fashion conversations? Are people increasingly mindful of the practice?

We might have looked that way for the past 50 years, but things have changed since then. People want things faster and at a cheaper rate. We may not be able to compete with others so we adapt to the focusing on quality over quantity. Since we aren't competing in the exporting market, we try to improve the quality standard of our products to be able to stand apart from other manufacturers.

I have found it quite difficult to engage people in content that is too serious or in-depth. So  what  I  did was  to create content that is more relatable and easier to watch  while still giving out information about the garment industry. And once I have done that, they are usually more willing to watch more in-depth videos.  Yet, over the past year of creating content on Tiktok, what surprised me the most was that our customers on Tiktok have developed a greater awareness of the sustainable fashion movement and are now more willing to participate in the sustainable fashion movement. Tiktok has opened so many doors for me, such as meeting people within the same industry which has led me to many more new opportunities.

I have realised that the more information we give out to our customers regarding slow fashion,sustainable fashion and the life quality of the workers, the more customers are willing to pay for quality products rather than products that won't last. 

Q3: Describe one memorable take away from your fashion journey thus far.

When I started my business 5 years ago, we started with screen printing, not manufacturing garments. Screen printing is the final aspect of the manufacturing process, so we never had to sew a shirt or  come up with clothing patterns.

Fast forward to today, we are now sewing our own T-shirt patterns and many more. It's very tough to be in this business, but during the last five years I have learned some important things. One of which is to treat every order the same, no matter the size of the order or whether the customer is a small business or giant corporation. We believe in maintaining a good quality of life for our employees as this will reflect in the quality of our products. We always push and educate ourselves on new and upcoming techniques and materials and we are always open to learn more from our employees. Finally, we believe that every customer that we work with are the hopes and future of the garment industry.   

Q4: What may we look forward to next in your upcoming projects?

What we have been doing and will continue doing is to use 100% organic cotton and reuse the trimming of leftover cotton fabric to reduce the amount of waste from our factories and increase sustainability in our processes. Something we are working on is to become more sustainable and specialise in producing T-shirts. 

Tum-Ma-Ha-Gin

Tum-Ma-Ha-Gin has a small starting point in recognizing the value of people in the industry and paying attention to the things that must be encountered during work as well as the oppressive wage of the labour standard, the lack of common people who rarely appreciate the value of handicrafts or craftsmen who do not respect their work, including industrial garbage of fashion, and textiles industries. These starting points make us desire to present the insight to be unfolding in-depth and easily accessible by the general public. Tum-Ma-Ha-Gin authorized by Awesomedough Part., Ltd. started from a shirt-printing shophouse in the Thonburi neighbourhood surrounded by household and small-scale industries with the idea that Thonburi neighbourhood is one of the neighbourhoods that have a lot of fashion and textile industries, but contrary to the quality of skilled labour life which appears to be the opposite of the number of jobs pouring in. Tum-Ma-Ha-Gin established in 2018 and has received positive feedback consistently. Tum-Ma-Ha-Gin has expected that will be able to use knowledge, ability and experience about production in fashion and textiles industries to develop the field by telling a sincere and straightforward story as much as possible.