n Kreangsak Suwanpantakul

 The Nation

 Bangkok Fashion Week 2006 drew some complaints for being sombre compared to last year's event, but a few labels broke out of the usual mould with stylish presentations that stole the show away from the actual clothes.

Tube Gallery, known for injecting entertainment into its collections - such as having men model womenswear - had viewers in the Fashion Dome wondering what sewing machines were doing lined up onstage.

Then six young girls in red saris ran out and began sewing clothes as if they were working in a factory.

The last to appear adjusted a radio on top of her machine and out came the soundtrack for the collection, apparently an Indian dance remix.

The sewing mistresses churned out fresh togs for the models as they strutted past - some of the males bare-chested and some of the females in see-through tops.

It was another attention-grabbing presentation by Tube, which last year memorably evoked nostalgia with music remixed from the old variety TV show "Ruamdao Sao Siam".

Grey really was thinking outside the box when it paraded its models - including a lot of children wearing oversized outfits - outside the Dome.

The finale featured a blonde-haired model in a winged costume, resembling an angel.

Audience members, perched beneath the burning sun, were given ice-cold towelettes to keep cool as they gaped.

But rather than evoking a hilltribe village, as was evidently the intention, the setting was all rusty metal screens and other props that made it look more like a deserted factory.

Playground varied the mood for collections by Oversue, AB-Normal, Olanor and Spooknic.

The show opened with a man placing a large cut-out of a hound on one side of the catwalk while a model walked the runway.

The cut-outs were changed as the event progressed: a mushroom first, then a stick to which a bird made of light fabric was attached, fluttering like a kite.

Closing Fashion Week for the second year in a row, the near-legendary Flynow presented an haute-couture collection above the ground.

Last year Flynow's models strolled about like Barbie dolls in a glass cage. This year there was a flyover catwalk with a maze of scaffolding and suspended light bulbs.

Anyone hoping to see the fine details of each outfit was lost as more than 30 models traipsed up and down the scaffold like mice in a labyrinth.

Creative? Yes.

Confusing? Yes, that too.