Kazakhstan Fashion Week Wraps Up In Almaty

The three-day fashion extravaganza known as Kazakhstan Fashion Week is wrapping up today, having attracted fashion lovers throughout the region as designers showcase their latest collections and designs for the 2019 spring and summer seasons.

This year’s fashion week is something like a road show, as several cities have hosted various events. Along with Almaty, fashion events are being held in Shymkent and Aktobe, while Astana, the capital, will host the final fashion show from November 21-23.

Fashion industry professionals are sharing their experiences with young designers and discussing how to properly promote their brands. For the first time ever, Kazakhstan Fashion Week is featuring children’s clothing.

“Many years ago, while thinking over the development strategy of Kazakhstan Fashion Week and the fashion industry as a whole, we saw the development of designers in the regions as one of the main goals of the project, and today, finally, we can say that the task is being accomplished,” Alexey Zheng, the art director of the fashion festival said prior to the event, according to a statement issued by the event organizers.

“Our representatives in Shymkent, Aktobe and Astana are doing a big work to support Kazakhstani designers, providing them with an opportunity to showcase their works in their own regions, and then, they can visit us in Almaty at the main platform of the country’s fashion industry,” Zheng said.

In addition, and unlike previous years, the opening main event in Almaty was hosted in the Palace of the Republic, a large concert hall that has become an icon of what was once Kazakhstan’s capital city.

“We have chosen such a landmark site as the Palace of the Republic not by accident: it is the point from where Kazakhstan Fashion Week will start and lay the main line for all the subsequent shows of the season,” said Sayat Dosybayev, who is the event’s general producer.

Kazakhstani television personality and designer Dinara Satzhan opened the event on Tuesday, impressing fans with her latest collection. Dinara was inspired to design skullcaps for all her models, thanks to the 1969 Kazakhstani movie “Angel In The Skullcap.”

Satzhan, age 36, launched her own brand last year, after having owned a showroom that had been filled with the collections of other designers.

“I am very happy that fashion is developing in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is experiencing a boom of stylists, makeup artists, cosmetologists, designers, and in competition, quality is born. There are a lot of people like in a marathon – and the time will show who will reach the finish line first,” Satzhan said at the opening, according to Kazinform.

Musical accompaniment was provided by the Almaty Symphony Orchestra, which played the famous piece by Karl Jenkins titled “Palladio.”

“This is such a creative collaboration, in which we wanted to break the stereotypes that classical music is boring and uninteresting,” explained Eldar Kunayev, who represents the management of the orchestra. “We helped the audience to look at the fashion show from a different angle with even greater emotions.”

The first Kazakhstan Fashion Week was held in 2012. Since then, dozens of designers from around the world have taken part, which is held twice each year.