Less is more

When you get to the end of your holiday and you’ve achieved a calm serenity with life and family (or not), do you love the idea of bringing a little bit of that magic back home? How do you do it? Do you vow from now on only ever to eat melon for breakfast? Or do you bring back a souvenir to remind you of the tranquillity of your holiday?

What sort of gift do you buy yourself? A t-shirt with a ‘witty’ slogan? A bottle of Ouzo or equally undrinkable local alcohol? Or a sombrero wearing donkey? What do you think when you get home and unpack these delights? Do you place them in pride of position on your mantelpiece or by the time your ‘plane has landed are you wondering how you could have taken leave of your senses and bought such a horror?

Good taste is a tricky issue, though not tricky enough to prevent me from passing comment. Something happens to addle the brain on holiday: out of your normal context you start admiring trinkets and clothes that would have Trinny and Susannah after you with a heavy handbag. Blame it on sun stroke or too much local vino but whatever is at fault; you really didn’t pack your sense of style, did you?

It isn’t just confined to holidays either, but living overseas too. It is particularly difficult in Thailand because decoration doesn’t follow the ‘less is more’ principle that much of the West practices. Here, more is certainly more, and then some. The Thais do have some interesting developments in contemporary design maturing, but the traditional craft designs are generally more decorative than suit western tastes. Except with that baffled brain you don’t seem to notice that.

When I visit the average expat home I wonder if the residents there have been on a perpetual holiday. If you felt smug at the idea of anyone being stupid enough to purchase the tacky donkey tat above, have you thought about some of the things you’ve purchased while living overseas? I’m really not sure that it’s much different to the donkey in a sombrero.

Take Thailand’s arts and crafts. Hands up if you’ve got lacquerware? Benjarong? White and blue pottery? Khon masks? Mother of pearl? Mango wood? Yes, I thought so. Please don’t admit that you have them all, tastefully on display in your apartment; that’s just not possible.

Style is eclectic. It doesn’t matter where you shop, if you’ve bought the whole range of anything, Conran, Ikea or Argos and reproduced it in your home, it will look contrived. Too many westerners living here fall for that beautiful eastern interior style and attempt to reproduce it in their homes, but don’t buy the job lot from Chatuchak. Use your imagination a bit, mix gorgeous eastern items with western style – otherwise risk looking like a sad parody of an expat.