A magnet for Bangkok’s chic crowd, Thong Lor has built itself a reputation as the posh playground for Bangkok’s elite, where old money affluence melds with modern-day decadence.

Today Thong Lor is a hub of sophisticated shops and exclusive eateries pedalling everything from abstract art to funky furniture to Parisian pastries. It’s almost as if local architects and designers stole a page from a mad lifestyle-magazine maven’s wish list and brought it all to life in one place.

Carefully crafted mini-mass – with their precisely jockeyed soundtracks, decors and displays – fuse art, fashion, interior design and entertainment into an irresistible mix that borders on the painfully trendy. Young, moneyed urbanites, arriving to sit at garden-side cafes must first squeeze past the teams of fashion photographers lining up to use the hippest locations in town as their backdrops.

Welcome to Sukhumvit, where style reigns supreme.