Post date: Sep 30, 2013 2:11:45 PM
Open Way fashion show and contest in Kazakhstan offers young designers an opportunity to compete in hi-tech fashion and vye for a place at one of the country's leading fashion houses.
ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN (RECENT - SEPTEMBER, 2013) (REUTERS) - Young talents of the Kazakh fashion world competed in Almaty during Kazakhstan's first national competition for young fashion designers.
Organisers of Kazakhstan Fashion Week (KFW), Central Asia's biggest fashion event, came up with the idea to stage a competition show for young designers - regardless of their professional backgrounds and education - to give them a chance to attract the attention of country's fashion industry houses.The organisers called it "Open Way 2013" and chose high-tech art as the main theme of the competition, offering representatives of the next generation the chance to present fresh designs in the era of cutting-edge technologies.
The Kazakh haute couture hopefuls let their fantasies unfold, using a variety of materials including plastic, wood and metals to create dresses inspired by motifs from science-fiction to Japanese geishas.
Prevailing colours were black, white, grey and green.
Aidana Kazhageldina won the competition with her "Geishas in High-tech Style" collection.
She said she has dreamed of becoming a fashion designer since childhood.
"I was in need of harmony and beauty, in need of talking to somebody (when I was a child). I stayed alone for a long time in a big house as my parents were at work. We lived in a private house, I had no friends in the neighbourhood. My friends were (Swedish writer) Astrid Lindgren, (Russian poets Anna) Akhmatova, (Marina) Tsvetayeva. I just a good library and I could read and communicate with 'my friends'," she told Reuters.
Kazakh fashionistas at the show enthusiastically welcomed every appearance of the the models with long applause.
Renowned Kazakh designer Akkenzhe Devyatko, who also showed her designs, organised a master class for her young colleagues based on the same high-tech motifs hoping to inspire future home-grown talent.
"I'm ready to give them my hand, or to push them forward if they can't move forward on their own. I think this is the future of the Kazakh fashion-industry. They need just a little help, words of support, financial aid, psychological aid," Devyatko told reporters after the show.
"I wanted to show the young designers that any object can become a piece of art in the hands of a talented artist," she added.
All 10 finale participants got awards.
The "grand prix" came with an invitation to participate in KFW, an internship at a leading fashion house, a computer tablet and 200,000 Kazakh tenge - about $1300.