Article By Alice Chin
Photo credit Style.UZ
The National Dress Festival, one of the pivotal events of Art Week Style.Uz 2013, was a unique blend of traditional Uzbek motifs, vivid colors, and modern design.
The Festival is a fusion of the past and the present in Uzbek national arts. It was wonderful experience to get a glimpse of talented Uzbek designers who will pave the way for the future of design. This year, the festival featured 13 collections consisting of 148 looks by 15 designers.
The National Dress Festival began with a beautiful performance by a lovely ballerina.
Gulnara Karimova
Preparations for the Festival are held throughout a year. It involves a great deal of research into the structure, composition and technical characteristics of national fabrics, a comparative analysis of historical fabrics and their contemporary reproduction, an analysis of cutting technologies in various regions in Uzbekistan, and research into natural dyes used in the past and at present. Based on the statistics of the researches, recommendations for designers are developed.
Cary Tagawa, Gulnara Karimova
The Festival was first held in 2005 as an independent event. In 2006 it was held in Bukhara, becoming a regular cultural event and winning the interest of numerous art enthusiasts. The same year it was made part of the annual Style.Uz Art Week.
Some of the participants from previous festival have set up their own companies. Among them are Alisher Mirfaizov, who opened a design studio at a textile factory in Fergana; Nargiza Sherhojayeva, who set up a home-based family business and teaches workshops; Dilshod Baltayev, who is engaged in silk graphics; Lali, who created a namesake label, and Furqat Abdurahmanov, who also oversees a private business.
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