What is behind the Mae Fah Luang line of clothing?

A huge development project, a program of conservation of nature and culture that connects to contemporary fashion.

The foundation trusted or discovered the talents of some of the most cutting-edge bangkok designers such as Chai Jeam-Amornrat, Patarasarun, Teera Chantaswasdee,...

"Mae Fah Luang" means literally "mother sky royal". It is the way the northern people of Thailand were used to nickname Her Highness the Princess Mother for her habit to personally visit isolated hill tribes villages by helicopter in order to deliver her warm comfort and encouragement to those in need of care and lack of the physical necessities of life or those who were victims of terrible acts of nature.

As she spent her life delivering help to those in need and as the mother of two kings, she is one of the most beloved royal figures among Thai people.

In 1972, Her Royal Highness donated 100,000 Baht of her private funds to support the establishment of the Thai Hill Crafts Foundation (Hill Tribes Products Promotion Foundation), based at Srapatum Palace in Bangkok, to promote and preserve the handicrafts of the various tribes, and to encourage tribes people to pursue these arts as supplementary occupations to agriculture so that they might improve their incomes and lives.

The Princess Mother made hill tribe self-reliance a key principle of development and graciously helped the hill tribes to enjoy a better life within their own cultural traditions, and in a context of full human rights.

As the scope of work undertaken by the Hill Tribes Products Promotion Foundation expanded to incorporate development activities in other areas, the foundation began to assume an increasingly important role as a focal point of state and private sector organizations at both the local and international level. In 1985 the Foundation revised its objectives to include cultural preservation, environmental improvement in deteriorated communities, and aid to impoverished rural people, both hill tribes and lowlanders.

As a result of these developments, Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother, in 1985, granted permission for the original foundation to be renamed the Mae Fah Luang Foundation Under the Royal Patronage of HRH the Princess Mother.

35 years after the first talks about the Thai Hill Crafts Foundation, the Mae Fah Luang Foundation is now continuing this work in a much wider scale. It aims not only at embettering living condition for the hill tribes but also at protecting their environment and independence through implementation of organic agriculture programs.