IT’S BEEN 10 years since it opened its flagship store in Bangkok and now Mikimoto Thailand is celebrating the occasion by revamping its boutique and presenting an exhibition of the masterpieces created by the brand over the last 120 years at Siam Paragon.

Since its establishment in 1893, the Japanese pearl master has always selected the highest quality pearls to create the most beautiful pieces. The highlight of the display, the total value of which is estimated at more than Bt200 million, is the Mikimoto Pearl Crown “Dreams & Pearls.

Yasuharu Ohara, president of Mikimoto Thailand, describes the crown a “a heartbeat of pride, a sparkle of wonderment and the epitome of Mikimoto’s excellent technicality.

“This is the first time that Mikimoto brought its masterpieces outside Japan, especially the crown. This was crafted to honour the 120th anniversary of Mikimoto and assembles 12 pearls of different types sources from cultivation farms around the world. These are fashioned into 12 flowers to showcase the delicate beauty of such rare pearls. Our craftsmen used the Akoya pearl, South Sea pearl, Black South Sea pearl as well as the very rare Melo pearl and Conch pearl. The piece is worth some Bt150 million,” Ohara says.

“Each flower has a different style, allowing the exceptional beauty and the unique perfection of the pearls to be appreciated from every angle. It is also an exceptional example of our masters’ skills because the crown is multi-functional. Part of our ‘Pearls in Motion’ range, it can be altered into a fine necklace or all 12 flowers can be released to become earrings, a brooch or pendant and a bracelet. The subtle mechanism allows the flowers to be released with just |one touch. Multi-functional |accessories have been part of our story since the very beginning|and we are always striving to do |better,” adds marketing director Achiraya Inkatanuvat.

Pearls used in the masterpiece collection are also sourced from the new environmentally friendly farm on Ainoshima Island off Fukuoka, a cultivation base that will define the future of the Akoya pearl.

The exhibition shows off Mikimoto’s pearl sorting technique and advanced technology. Here too the creative possibilities are endless. They include the Akoya pearl hair band with diamonds as well as other head accessories adorned with delicate lace and ribbon that can transform into an earring, a scarf-like draping necklace and a bracelet.

A simple, classic necklace inspired Mikomoto to excel in the “pearl sorting” technique, applying the skills of its craftsmen to introduce a range of jewellery that’s perfect for every occasion.

The Akoya pearl tiara with conch pearl, diamonds and gemstones features a stunning tourmaline set of conch pearl, diamonds and gemstones that are intricately put together to create a unique hair decoration like no other.

The shoulder brooch with diamonds and gemstones, which is part of the Sapphire & Ruby Collection, exhibits rare and precious gems of different colours and shapes, and is testimony to Mikimoto’s aesthetic values that encompass both tradition and innovation in search of the ultimate beauty.

Multi-functional designs are currently at the very heart of the brand. “We’ve been working on this concept since 2013 to allow women to wear pearls for every occasions and challenging them with new techniques. We say to them, ‘this is not just a pearl string necklace but a very versatile piece as well’,” Ohara says.

THEY MIGHT have plunged themselves and the world’s financial markets into crisis with last Thursday’s Brexit vote, but everybody still loves the English – or their style at least.

From Dior’s black-clad boot boys to Louis Vuitton’s rakish colonial artistos, British influences where ever present, liberally dolloped with pure London punk. String vests and braces have never looked so elegant as they did on the Dior runway, with designer Kris Van Assche cutting the skinhead aggression with the melancholic gothic whimsy of The Cure.

Deconstructed cricket jumpers graced the Japanese label Facetasm’s show and Walter Van Beirendonck embraced almost every sartorial icon of an eternal England from boating blazers to brogues and even Morris men folk dancers.

Fellow Flemish master Dries Van Noten paid homage to the 19th-century English arts and crafts movement in his show, referencing patterns from William Morris’ home in Kelmscott Manor.

At a time of such anglophilia, the Brexit vote came as a shock.

Chanel’s guru Karl Lagerfeld blamed country yokels for voting Leave saying: “Look who voted, it was the people from deep in the countryside, the big cities didn’t want it at all.

The German-born style guru known as “The Kaiser” dismissed Brexit as a passing moment of madness. “It don’t think it will work out, they may have another vote.

“I don’t think it is a good idea. The analysis of the vote shows that it is a bad decision. We don’t need to say much more about it.”

Agnes b. was more conciliatory, getting up a last-minute celebrity petition begging Britons to stay in Europe. “We are very sad,” the French designer said. “Hopefully there will be another vote.”

Oddly the happiest man in Paris was the English designer Paul Smith, a fervent pro-European.

But you couldn’t but be cheerful seeing his joyful reggae-toned new spring-summer collection. “Life goes on,” he said. You have to be “positive and happy in this weird world”.

The longer fashion week went on the more it resembled a gathering of the clans, reaching an apex when Smith unveiled the latest style to have come out of the British cultural melting pot – “rasta tartan”.

British for now, that is.

“It’s Scotland gone mad,” he said as his models broke out in big smiles wearing the rainbow-Rastafarian plaid in beautifully tailored beachy, Caribbean casual wear and zoot suits.

Louis Vuitton, Dior, Off-White and Japanese labels Kolor and Facetasm also made eye-catching use of plaid while the hipsters of OAMC gave it a grungy Irvin Welsh urban edge.

Style critics often complain that men’s fashion is boring. Always the same. Jackets, jumpers and cardigans, and most dull of all, the suit.

No longer. Designers took massive liberties with the suit this week, none more so than the Vetements tyro Demna Gvasalia, who also now holds the scissors at Balenciaga.

The young Georgian dramatically remade the classic suit, pulling it tighter to the body while throwing out huge padded shoulders.

While many other have copied his oversized trope, none have yet done it so well.

Elsewhere, arms were ripped off suits and raincoats, lapels inverted, and pockets and tailoring all revealed. But all felt like deconstruction compared to Gvasalia’s radical flair.

Worn high, low and – whisper it – even with sandals, socks are slowly being rehabilitated from style Siberia.

While footballers at Euro 2016 in France are wearing theirs above the knee, Facetasm, White Mountaineering and the American label Off-White dared to put sports socks on the catwalk.

Kenzo came furthest out of the closet repeatedly teaming socks with sandals – and matching black socks and white sandals for further shock value. Some hosiery went nearly to the knees and French label Pigalle thoroughly trashed the taboo by adding bath sandals.

In one final act of pure provocation Paul Smith sent out the invitations to his show on pairs of socks. He followed this by smuggling stripey socks and sandals onto the catwalk. “Weren’t they great?” he laughed afterwards.