Jim Thompson

     James H. W. Thompson is a successful American businessman and well-known resident of Bangkok. Jim Thompson first arrived in Thailand in September, 1945, at the end of the Second World War. During exploratory visits to Thailand's isolated and impoverished north-east, Thompson became interested in the almost extinct cottage silk industry, and began making enquiries.
     By 1947, when Thompson began his activity, the indigenous silk trade had almost ceased to exist. Most weaving families had abandoned their traditional livelihood in favour of other skills, and the few that remained were scattered and unorganised, regarding weaving as an auxiliary source of income at best. Only in one locality could Thompson find a community of weavers still living in proximity to each other. Thompson persevered, and persuaded one weaver to produce a number of lengths of silk in traditional colours which might serve as samples of the craft. Armed with these samples, Thompson boarded a plane for the United States, bound for his native New York. Here he approached the editor of Vanity Fair, Frank Crowninshield, who was an old acquaintance and also the only person Thompson knew who was in any way connected to the fashion industry. In this way he obtained an introduction to Edna Woolman Chase, then editor of Vogue, and general arbiter of all good taste in the world of fashion. According to the legend, Mrs Chase took one look at the lengths of Ban Krua silk spread out across her desk, and fell in love. Within weeks a dress in the new material by Valentina, the New York designer, graced the pages of Vogue. Thai silk was "in". Jim Thompson was on his way to a personal fortune, and the Cham weavers of Ban Krua were about to achieve a new prosperity.
     The rest, as they say, is history. Thompson went on to found the Thai Silk Company Ltd., in 1948. Today, Thai Silk is renowned for its high quality and unique style throughout the world, and the industry Jim Thompson revived employs more than twenty thousand people.