Imaginary fashion faux pas, called up by Borat... Kazakhstan Fashion Week held at the Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C. at the weekend went an absolutely different way. Among hits of the event: a distraught baby, carried down the catwalk by a model wearing a black train, pearls and fur… This was a fashion show conducted in earnest, featuring the luxe stylings of Saida Azhikhan of Kazakhstan, Baktybek Tulparov of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan's Lola Babayeva, a show intended to showcase, and to show off.
Because of the hugely popular mockumentary film entitled “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” featuring the provocative British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen, the country of Kazakhstan is suffering a period insults and mispersuasion. The film describes Kazakhstan as a semi-wild backward country of big moustached men, racists and sexists. Surprisingly, people seem to be delighted with Borat.
An embassy-sponsored fashion event, Central Asian fashion design show, featuring the latest couture from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and the much-put-upon Republic of Kazakhstan, can improve the situation, but Borat has been causing a bit of an image problem for the good people of Eurasia.
This was a fashion show conducted in earnest, featuring the luxe stylings of Saida Azhikhan of Kazakhstan, Baktybek Tulparov of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan's Lola Babayeva, a show intended to showcase, and to show off.
A distraught baby, carried down the catwalk by a model wearing a black train, pearls and fur, bejewelled masks and suspenders, it could only be from Kazakhstan. That’s how Washington Post perceives “erratic and unusual creations” at Kazakhstan Fashion Week at the weekend through their staff writer Teresa Wiltz. A golden gown with floor-length sleeves and meshed neckline looked more like a rejected Star Wars costume than couture, so, too, a see-through shirt, suspenders and horns outfit worn by a cigarette-smoking model, the newspaper reports.
"I'd like to give a little thanks to Borat for giving us some publicity. If you're expecting any ugly women from Central Asia, you will be disappointed," said female designer Azhikhan. Fur -- chinchilla, mink and faux -- cropped up in everything, trimming funnel necks on great, charcoal velvet coats, slung around the hips of a paisley-esque maxi-skirt, punctuating jackets shot though with shimmers of Swarovski crystals. Kyrgyzstan's Tulparov seemed preoccupied with then and now, serving up clothes that skittered between references to Kyrgyz children's clothing from the 18th and 19th centuries (lots of angelic smock dresses) and 21st-century club gear (lots of metallic thigh-grazing minis). Another female designer Babayeva has shown an Uzbek woman rooted in tradition, wearing turbans and long, printed tunics and blazers trimmed with embroidery and gorgeous metal-plate necklaces.