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

Secret agent silks. 

“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.

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“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. 

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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. The items are all available online and retail for $290, respectively. 

Jim Thompson CEO Frank Cancelloni told The Post that the collaboration with Bovaird “was seamless and thoughtfully planned.”

“Alex was looking for a brand that truly represented Thailand, and Jim Thompson’s heritage and positioning aligned perfectly with her vision,” he said.

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Cancelloni also revealed that Posey “had a strong connection to the brand during her fittings.”

“We later discovered that, while in Thailand, she visited our store on her own and made personal purchases — an incredibly flattering surprise,” he shared, adding, “A few other well-known cast members did the same.”

The company’s story began at the end of World War II when Thompson ended up in Bangkok after working for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the CIA. Though he then focused on building his silk business, which was bolstered after he supplied the fabrics he never stopped being a spy and was possibly even a double agent. 

Occurring just 10 months before the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, Thompson’s disappearance triggered a massive search effort. Over 300 Malaysian soldiers along with British troops and Royal Army Air Corps helicopters — not to mention a handful of clairvoyants — ended up joining the operation.

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Conspiracy theories about what happened to Thompson began almost as soon as he disappeared and, despite being declared dead in absentia by a Thai court in 1974, persist to this day. 

“I try not to get too caught up in conspiracy theories, but I doubt he was a CIA spy when he disappeared,” Cancelloni told The Post.

“He was an OSS officer. We do know that he was disappointed with the US policy during the Vietnam War. That could potentially be one of the reasons for his disappearance, but we’ll likely never know for sure!”

Thompson’s impact on the Thai silk industry has endured just as strongly as the conspiracy theories about his demise. “Thompson wasn’t just a silk merchant; he was a visionary who transformed the lives of thousands of Thai weavers,” textile expert Dr. Siriporn Ruengsakul told the Thai Examiner in 2023.

“The White Lotus” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO and Max.