[1] Starting in the 1980s, various breed clubs in both North America and Europe appeared that were dedicated to preserving the type that represents the early 20th-century Siamese and is still found in Thailand.

The World Cat Federation (WCF) recognized the original style as a separate breed, Thai, with full championship competitive status, in 1990.

In January 2010, the Thai was granted Championship status in TICA, enabling it to compete for top honours along with the other breeds of pedigreed cats.

[4] Long before its re-branding as the Thai, the old type of Siamese was part of the foundation stock of a variety of new 20th-century breeds, such as the Himalayan, Ocicat, and Havana Brown.

As breeds, the Thai and the modern Siamese share common ancestry, the point colouration gene, and the outgoing, people-loving, vocal personality made famous in the West by the early 20th century imports.

The primary features of the Thai are that it is a "pointed" cat (blue eyes, dark extremities, pale body) of foreign body type (more elongated than the average Western domestic cat, but noticeably less so than the modern Siamese or Oriental); has a modified wedge-shaped head; a long flat forehead; a nose with no more than a slight concave curve at eye level; has a short, flat-lying single coat; does not carry the longhair gene; and it usually has a registered pedigree dating back to the late 19th century Siamese, with no Western domestic shorthair ancestors.

The goal of Thai breeders is always to preserve the old look, provide plenty of genetic diversity for a healthy future, and guarantee the authenticity and personality of the old type of Siamese.

Western breeders wanted to emphasize and augment the qualities that made the cats so different and through selective breeding, they developed an increasingly elongated, angular, finer-boned type of Siamese.