Thai luxury, a market in its own right

Bangkok’s place on the luxury map has changed markedly over the past five years, and the shift is visible in the city’s retail landscape. Hermès reopened an expanded flagship at Central Embassy in January 2025, behind a facade of champagne-coloured lacquered panels evoking bamboo stems. Cartier opened a duplex at Siam Paragon integrating stained glass shaped after the Pudtarn flower and straw marquetry by a Thai studio, while Richard Mille opened its first Thai boutique and Buccellati chose Bangkok for its largest store in Asia Pacific. Louis Vuitton made the city the only Southeast Asian stop of its global celebration of the Monogram’s 130th anniversary. Taken together, these openings reflect long-term commitments.

The market figures point in the same direction. Thailand’s luxury market, estimated at around five billion dollars, is expected to overtake Singapore’s, driven largely by local consumers rather than tourists, and by fashion more than by watches and jewellery.

Thai consumers remain particularly receptive to physical and emotional brand experiences, and the celebrity ecosystem reinforces this. Thai actors from boys’ love (BL) series have joined Chinese and Korean stars among the most powerful figures at European fashion shows: at Dior’s Spring-Summer 2024 show in Paris, Nattawin Wattanagitiphat and Phakphum Romsaithong each generated around six million dollars in media impact value, more than twice the figure recorded for Robert Pattinson.

The digital landscape is equally distinctive. LINE has become a genuine luxury channel in Thailand: according to the platform, the number of official accounts held by luxury brands rose by 46% and their followers by 33%, while 55% of Thai consumers say they follow luxury brands through LINE. The market follows neither China’s WeChat model nor Korea’s Instagram-first logic, and has developed its own platforms and purchasing rituals.

For international houses, this means treating Bangkok as a market in its own right, with activations conceived for Thai audiences instead of tourist flows. LINE deserves particular attention: used as a space for ongoing conversation with clients, such as private appointments or after-sales follow-up, it can support a lasting client relationship well beyond promotional messages.

Bangkok is also home to one of the most visible LGBT scenes in Asia. In January 2025, Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to recognise same-sex marriage, and the BL series that made the actors mentioned earlier famous have built a large audience across the region, particularly in China.

For brands addressing Gen Z, this scene carries real cultural weight. Since 2021, Chinese regulators have restricted BL adaptations and portrayals of men deemed too effeminate, and Thai series have partly filled the gap. Working with this scene allows a house to reach young Chinese audiences, provided its commitment goes beyond recruiting actors for their audience figures and extends to Bangkok’s creative scene more broadly.