HER MAJESTY the Queen has her seventh-cycle birthday on August 12, when she’ll turn 84, and the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles has a year-round series of activities planned to celebrate.

Six local clothing brands – Wisharawish, Sanchai, Real, Hook’s by Prakakas, Chai Gold Label and T-Ra – recently offered a glimpse of what’s ahead for the “QSMT Celebration” in a runway presentation at the museum’s elegant Ratsadakorn-bhibhathana Building on the grounds of the Grand Palace.

What we’ll see is exquisite Thai silk given a more modern design.

Thanpuying Charungjit Teekara, Her Majesty’s Deputy Private Secretary, offered details of the Silk Festival 2016, the latest edition of an event formerly held at Phu Phan Rajanivet Palace in Sakhon Nakhon.

The QSMT Celebration aims as usual to raise public awareness at home and abroad about the Queen’s royal projects involving arts and crafts and the preservation of the skills and knowledge behind Thai textiles.

“More importantly, we’re initiating the return of the silk festival by requesting well-known designers to create dresses using silk from the Support Foundation. The famous silk festival at Laan Kham Hom at Phu Phan Rajanivet Palace hasn’t been held in many years, since Her Majesty can’t travel to the Northeast due to her health. So for this auspicious year, the QSMT is hosting the festival in Bangkok. We want to encourage and inspire Thais to use more Thai fabrics in their daily lives.”

In June the “Seventh Arts of the Kingdom” exhibition will boast a spectacular new pavilion housing Support Foundation displays, called “Reun Yod Borom Mangala-nusaranee”.

August will have a “Fit for a Queen” exhibition of gowns made for Her Majesty between 1960 and 1982 by famed French clothier Pierre Balmain, and the Queen’s Gallery will show textile artworks created by six hilltribe people.

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn will officially open all three of these events.

Next November the QSMT will host an exhibition of lavish Royal Khon costumes and performances of the most popular khon shows.

The celebrations conclude with the Silk Festival at Suan Amporn Garden, which will be redecorated to invoke memories of past festivals at Phu Phan Rajanivet Palace.

QSMT chief Piyavara Teekara Natenoi and Kullawit Laosuksri, editor-in-chief of Vogue Thailand and an adviser to the museum, expanded on plans for the “Fit for a Queen” exhibition.

“Ever since she first began accompanying His Majesty the King on state visits to the United States and European countries in 1960, Her Majesty has played a significant role in promoting Thai culture,” Piyavara said.

Those state visits, Kullawit pointed out, took up almost nine months a year, so the attire had to match every season and the accessories had to suit the traditions of the various European courts.

“Their Majesties were impressed by Balmain’s designs very much – they were elegantly classic and timeless,” he said. “Balmain happened to be in Thailand during those years as well, so it was a good timing.”

During the fashion show, Chai Jiamkittikul of Chai Gold Label said he’d been inspired by the Queen’s choice in trousers, which echo Meo hilltribe garb. “I adapted them with my own signature style uses draping techniques.”

Wisharawish Akarasantisuk sought to make silk more comfortable and practical, so he blended it with cotton. It reduces production costs as well, yet the material still looks refined thanks to his hand-stitched embroidery.

“I come from the countryside and I thought about my grandparents, who wore silk,” he said. “They’d wash it frequently and there was no need for dry-cleaning. That’s an aspect we should respect more in silk, and meanwhile make it more comfortable and realistically wearable.”

T-Ra Chantasavati also wanted to make the material comfortable, so he kept the togs light and a bit loose. He studied up on Her Majesty’s 1967 visit to Europe in 1967 and researched Pierre Balmain’s creations as well.