‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 has a surprising connection to a missing ‘CIA spy,’ costume designer reveals

nypost.com:

“The White Lotus” Season 3 has a connection to a real-life unsolved mystery about the disappearance of a suspected American spy living in Thailand — and it all has to do with the show’s costumes. “White Lotus” costume designer Alex Bovaird revealed that for Season 3, she turned to a Thai fashion brand founded by an American intelligence officer-turned-silk merchant named Jim Thompson, who vanished without a trace in 1967 after taking a walk in the Malaysian highlands.“There is a brand [in Thailand] called Jim Thompson that we loved,” Bovaird exclusively told The Post. “It was started by an American whose legend is that he may have been a spy for the CIA, and that he fell in love with Thai textiles and opened a factory. “His disappearance is a mystery as he walked into the jungle one day and was never found,” she continued.

Thompson’s textile company, which he founded in 1948, today has expanded into luxury goods including ready-to-wear clothing that looks right at home on the “The White Lotus” guests. “They have incredible home furnishings and gorgeous men’s and women’s resort wear,” Bovaird said of the brand. “It is a bit more classic and has more international styling, so we were able to blend it into the American guests’ wardrobe.” Among the “White Lotus” cast members dressed in Jim Thompson clothes on Season 3: Parker Posey, who plays Southern matriarch Victoria Ratliff, dons one of the brand’s silk kimono kaftan dresses; Christian Friedel — the hotel’s manager, Fabian — wears an orange-and-white-striped silk and rayon Mandarin-style shirt; and Natasha Rothwell, “White Lotus” Season 1 returnee Belinda, shimmers in a silk scarf kaftan dress.