BOYY kicks off its BOYYISH Roti Saimai collection just in time for the Songkran holiday with a daring proposition: a do-it-yourself cotton candy burrito kit released directly into the splash zone.
Celebrated as Thailand’s New Year, Songkran is marked by temple visits, family reunions, auspicious sweets — and the world’s largest water fight. It is a festival defined by joyful impermanence. Streets dissolve into laughter, chalk blessings blur, and carefully styled hair meets its humid fate. Into this ritual of soaking renewal enters spun sugar — structurally optimistic, spiritually aligned, and physically… vulnerable.
Named after the beloved Thai dessert, the collection translates the delicacy’s soft whimsy into three tanks and a headband that echo the treat’s airy sweetness with a distinctly Boyyish twist. The playful result? Fashion that references confection, confection that references ephemerality.
Boyyish set featuring their Roti Saimai Collection with matching Italo-Thai dessert muse. (Source: BOYY)
What is Roti Saimai (โรตีสายไหม)
Roti saimai — literally “silk thread roti” (sai = thread, mai = silk) — is one of Thailand’s most recognizable sweets. Fine strands of hand-stretched palm sugar are wrapped inside a whisper-thin roti pancake, forming something often affectionately described as a cotton candy burrito, cotton candy crêpe, or silk-thread spring roll.
The texture is paradoxically airy and chewy, delicate yet tactile. Threads collapse instantly on the tongue, dissolving into caramel with a faint nutty depth from palm sugar. Traditionally pale gold or pandan green, modern variations appear in pastel hues flavored with strawberry, taro, chocolate, or banana — edible confetti suited for a celebratory season.
Vibrant saimai caramel threads served at Thai food stalls are often stored in inflated bags to maintain their fragile, airy texture and protect against water fight shenanigans.
(Source: Tourism Authority of Thailand)
While enjoyed year-round, roti saimai often appears during Songkran, when symbolic sweetness sets the tone for the year ahead. Consuming desserts during the holiday is believed to sweeten the months ahead and attract greater fortune.
The dessert’s delicacy also mirrors the holiday’s central philosophy: renewal through release. Songkran’s lasting tradition uses water to wash away the residue from the past year; saimai sugar dissolves just as easily.
Traditionally, the roti wrapper is made from flour, water, and salt, sometimes infused with pandan for its grassy vanilla aroma and pale jade hue. The floss itself is pulled from palm sugar, whose deeper caramel notes distinguish it from Western carnival cotton candy. The result is a street sweet embodying craftsmanship.
Rolling up a roti saimai for Thailand’s New Year. (Source: Lamunn)
The BOYYISH Take
For Songkran, BOYY partners with dessert atelier Lamunn to reinterpret the classic through an Italo-Thai lens. With creative roots between Milan and Bangkok, the brand bridges the two cities through flavor, translating classic Italian desserts into their spun sugar form.
Their three variations include:
Crème Caramel
A smooth, velvety caramel sweetness paired with original white cotton candy, finished with crushed vanilla-infused crackers.Tiramisù
Bold coffee with the creamy sweetness roti, paired with cocoa cotton candy and topped with crushed chocolate cookies.Cannoli Pistachio
Nutty pistachio richness topped with crushed pistachios and paired with pandan cotton candy for a fragrant, balanced sweetness.
The result is knowingly impractical: fragile sugar threads distributed at a festival defined by water cannons. Yet this tension is precisely the point.
Songkran celebrates surrender to joy, community, and the cleansing unpredictability of a fresh year. Roti saimai, with its dissolving silk strands, becomes a metaphor made edible. A reminder that some pleasures are meant to be fleeting, slightly inconvenient, and fully enjoyed before they melt.
Nutritionally debatable yet spiritually essential.
Cover image via BOYY
