Garments is a charity-led clothing initiative born inside Grandma Jazz — a café in Phuket built on community, creativity, and the belief that waste is something we can unlearn.
The program is simple: we rescue second-hand clothing, bring each piece back through essential repair and tactical adjustments — upcycling it back to its original appeal — then donate 25% of proceeds to local elderly charity.
Garments exists for two reasons: reuse, and respect. Respect for what already exists — and respect for those before us, the elders.
“Garments is deeply personal to me. I grew up in a big family, raised by my grandma, wearing clothes passed down from my sisters and cousins. That’s how I learned we don’t need new clothes—we need creativity, care, and confidence in what we already have.”
— Joy Vonglek
Garments didn’t begin as a project. It began as a pattern. People kept asking where our clothes were from — not because they were new, but because they weren’t.
You know those garments that make you look longer? The ones that fall a certain way and suddenly you stand differently.
At first, it was just what we wore to work. Second-hand clothing collected over years, repaired when needed, lived in properly. Nothing curated. Nothing planned. Then the questions became too consistent to ignore.
That makes sense once you meet Joy Vonglek.
Joy Vonglek, Co-founder of Grandma Jazz
Joy is one of the two co-founders of Grandma Jazz — a 29-year-old Thai woman who left her office job and didn’t look back. She doesn’t talk about it like a dramatic story. She just did it — and she built this place with heart and discipline. For a lot of young Thai women, Joy is proof you can choose your own path and build something real.
Joy has always loved vintage, timeless, quality garments — pieces with character, not hype. She doesn’t buy clothes the way most people do. She looks for pieces worth reviving. Pieces with potential. Pieces she can restyle her way.
That energy shows up daily.
Joy Vonglek’s unique sense of style was the inspiration for GARMENTS
Guests comment on her outfits constantly — some vintage trousers rolled up, a jazzy pattern or fabric. At first it was compliments. Then it became funny.
Once, a guest asked to buy the hat straight off her head — half joking, half serious. Another day, someone wanted her scarf. After that, the questions came almost daily:
Where do you buy your clothes?
How do you find pieces like this?
Is it vintage? Is it one-of-one?
Joy smiles because the answer is simple: There’s more than one way to wear this.
“I remember thinking—if I can make something meaningful from second-hand clothes that only need a little care, then I can also give something back. Back to actual Grandmas.”
— Joy Vonglek
Garments is personal for Joy — so this part matters. She realised that if she could restore second-hand clothes with a bit of care, she could also use that to support actual grandmas — the elders who raised families and deserve support now. That was the moment it clicked.
Somewhere along the way we looked deeper into what was happening globally — and it hit us.
We learned how much clothing is thrown away every single minute around the world. Roughly 175 tonnes of textiles are discarded every minute, globally. It shocked us both.
After that, second-hand clothing stopped feeling like a preference and started feeling like a responsibility. Not because everyone needs to dress this way — but because the waste is too big to ignore.
We aren’t redesigning clothing. We aren’t trying to make it louder. These are garments that already exist. They’ve already lived once. They don’t need improvement. They need someone.
There’s something grounding about wearing a piece that wasn’t made for you — yet still fits. A garment already carries a story, and when you wear it, you’re not starting from zero. You’re continuing something.
That said, realism matters.
One of the first things we started the café in was a pair of second-hand Dr. Martens. They looked great. Properly worn in. Solid. But after a few long days on our feet, it became clear the previous owner had lived a very full life in them.
They came with character. They also came with some unmistakably funky-smelling feet.
Second-hand isn’t about perfection. It’s about honesty.
Over time, we noticed something else: pieces with a past often turn more heads than anything new. Not because they’re loud, but because they feel settled.
From the beginning, Joy was central to how Garments took shape. She found aunties that could sew, locally, modelled the clothes herself, and let the pieces speak without forcing them.
Most of it happens quietly in the background — Joy checking seams, restoring what’s essential, making small tactical adjustments that bring a piece back into its original strength.
In the beginning, sourcing was simple. Joy and I were hunting through racks in local markets, online, and in the back of our own wardrobes.
As the initiative grew, sourcing evolved too. Guests started asking if they could bring their own garments — pieces they no longer wear but can’t bear to throw away — and have them given the same Garments treatment.
This is where the whole thing became more than a clothing rack.
Because the most memorable moments aren’t about the garments themselves — they’re about what happens after someone chooses one.
One guest chose a heavier garment and told us it was for his grandma in Kyrgyzstan, Russia.
A month later, the surprise came. A photo arrived — his grandma wearing it at his wedding. Then came the caption underneath:
“Bro, it fits her perfectly.”
That gave us goosebumps. Not because of the sale. Because the garment had crossed borders and generations and landed exactly where it was meant to land.
Another time, a text came through that made us smile: “my sister loves the skirt.” At the time, we weren’t even sure who the skirt was for. We didn’t judge — we respected it either way. But it was a nice feeling to know it ended up in a loving home.
And then there was the moment that made Joy burst out laughing.
A voice from a guest called out: “How do I look?” Joy turned around and, to her surprise, saw a very muscular guy trying on a beautiful delicate garment. The contrast was perfect. Joy started laughing, then he started laughing too — because his muscles were simply too big for that one.
That moment says a lot. No shame. No rules. Just people trying things.
“My favorite moment is when someone looks at themselves in the mirror and smiles—almost surprised.”
— Joy Vonglek
Garments began because it made sense. It continues because clothing doesn’t need to be new to be meaningful. It just needs to be worn.
If it feels good on you, it’s good on you.
Clothing that already exists, being worn again.
That’s what Garments is. Something in the fabric.
— Grandma Jazz
Photos by Bkk.kitsune (Chonlapon Jim Sotth)
About Grandma Jazz
Founded by AC Correya and Joy Vonglek, Grandma Jazz is a plastic-free cannabis café and creative community space on a mountain in Kamala, Phuket. Blending live music, sustainability, and slow living, it has become Thailand’s first dispensary to surpass 1,000 plastic-free days — and a quiet symbol of how cannabis culture can find its humanity again, even as the legal landscape shifts back toward strictly medical use.
