The scene is no different when it comes to the swath of designs that hit the runways during annual fashion shows in the country, most organized by fashion schools. There have been seldom instances when I’ve gone searching to congratulat the designer after the show.
But 2010 has been a busy year for the fashion industry in comparison to previous years. Here, as I write about Nepal’s fashion industry, I’ve narrowed it down to clothing and the design scene.
This year saw a rise in the number of fashion stores—be it on high-end streets like Durbar Marg or in various corners of the city. Kathmandu became familiar with online shopping with the launch of fmirror.com and harilo.com.
Three lifestyle magazines—Navyaata, Essence, and Clone, which seem to be giving enough space for fashion, hit the market. Nonetheless, we’ve yet to see originality and more the local content.
The market, which failed to update itself for years, has a handful of stores delivering the latest trends. But if you skim through, almost all the stores are stocked up with the same or similar-looking Chinese products. Homemade products have yet to penetrate the mass market.
With an increment in the flow of remittances, the purchasing power of Nepalis has steadily grown. This, coupled with the presence of ubiquitous Chinese products, sets a perfect time for local designers to pitch in with their new ideas and offer something new and homemade.
Apart from financial pressure, designers cite lack of fabrics, work force, and the power cutoffs as major challenges for shying away to launch ready-to-wear collections and would rather stick to boutiques.
If British high-end labels like People Tree and Aura Que can carry out their productions in Nepal, utilizing available resources, and if their products can allure international markets, can’t our local designers create the same impact?
It’s a fact, though, that of the total of 300 textile industries of various sizes in the country, only 100 are currently in operation, reported nepalnews.com a few days back. Cheap Chinese textiles, power cutoffs, labor disputes have further weakened the domestic textile sector.
On the other hand, nothing much has been done to bring local fabrics, such as handloom cotton, into the mainstream and exploring organic textiles like nettle, banana and hemp remain at a minimum. There are, however, boutiques around Thamel and Pulchowk and clothing lines like Karuna, which have concentrated on designs based on such fabrics.
Along with Nepal’s textile industry falling apart, the other weak aspect of our fashion industry is the design itself; creativity is stuck in a traditional periphery.
The Week Design of the Year: Tenzin Tseten Bhutia’s design for Miss Earth Nepal 2010 was immaculate in terms of design and stitching. The detailing, like intricate pleating on the upper bodice, didn’t overwhelm the overall architecture but rather complimented its clean lines.
During designer contests and graduation shows of fashion schools, tinkering instead of serious designs, overpowers the runways.
Aspiring designers tried turning a bunch of condoms into haute couture. More often than not, we see a lot of designs that are likely to gather dust in designer’s adobes or boutiques. We have had enough of hotchpotch work cut out of Dhaka fabrics, and Nepali flags which carry messages of load-shedding and patriotism. Let’s concentrate on real designs.
Like previous years, students were found to be working on similar themes like Back to School, Hippie Era, and Tribal in every other show. It would’ve been interesting to see designers exploit one specific characteristic, such as color or pattern of the particular era, and create something beautiful rather than going too literal on the themes.
In the coming year, schools and teachers have to take major responsibility to train their students to think outside the box so that viewers take their creativity seriously rather than making it a matter of fun.
It’s often been said that Nepali designers aren’t on par with international ones because fashion as a subject and industry is relatively new here. But then, Prabal Gurung and Seema Pun’s work defy this myth.
However, in 2010, we saw the rise of a few local designers like Nuzhat Qazi and Tenzin Tseten Bhutia.
Qazi, who designed for movies like “Kohi Mero” and “Bato Muniko Phool,” has tried bringing normality in Nepali films, which are often surfaced with garish ensembles. Bhutia’s design for Miss Earth Nepal 2010 was one of the very few commendable creations of the year.
Along with the annual Nepal Fashion Week organized by IEC School of Fashion and Art, we also saw a few other efforts. But in most of the events, fashion was more of a sideshow than the event itself.
The only other major fashion event of the country, Nepal Fashion Week, stepped into its sixth year with a handful of good designs to offer. The event, which attracted more IEC students than professionals, would’ve carried better prospects if local retailers were
also invited. In addition, to make the fashion week more like a national event and less like a designers’ contest, it’s high time the organizers filtered the work and focus on quality.
The fashion scene, however, isn’t completely hopeless.
2011 is going to see the launch of a haute fashion calendar by FashionKraft and Nuzhat Qazi’s clothing line ‘Nuzhat’. Small efforts and steps are being taken like hiring designers for movies and a collaboration of organic label Karuna and Qazi for the summer 2011 collection. It’s a message of how the fashion industry is gaining momentum in Nepal.
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