I was quite surprised when I visited Tashkent a few years back. Girls were wearing a wide range of clothing:  I saw plenty in traditional Uzbek garments, a fair few hijabs and also a lot of very snappily dressed gorgeous Uzbek girls in bright, modern garb.

Yet when I went to go look at the clothes on offer to girls, hoping to snag myself a souvenir, I have to say the choice was kinda limited. It seemed that there weren’t hardly any clothing stores. The ones I did see were much more expensive than I had expected.

I read in Ferghana, the Russian news agency, trade constraints mean the flow of quality girls’ clothing into Uzbekistan was curtailed in 2002-2003, As such Uzbek traders had to shift to local low-quality goods and poorly fashioned clothes.

Tashkent has about 20 specialized clothes shops for a population the 2,5 million population that live in the Uzbek capital. Although most of the clothes belong to old collections, their prices stay unreasonably high, costing as much as or even more than new collections.

“Gone Shopping… Back in a Couple of Days.”

Even clothes manufactured in Turkey are so rare and expensive that local merchants advertise them as exclusive with “Made in Turkey!”  slogans to attract shoppers.

So where do fashion-conscious Uzbek girls go for clothes that don’t cost the Earth?

Not surprisingly, Uzbek bargain hunters often go abroad to do their shopping, as the selection is better and more reasonably priced in neighbouring countries.

Style Uz Please!

The good news is that girls who want to dress to impress might not have to go so far in future. Something extraordinary has emerged on a national level that promises to make Uzbekistan a major player in the fashion industry.

Still in its infancy, Style.uz is a week long, annual, mega-cultural event that began in 2006, and each October hosts upscale fashion events in Tashkent and Samarqand. These ultra-trendy events encompass art, design, style, music, food, classes, parties and photography, catapulting the country to heart of the glamour cosmos.

As The Fashion Time reports, the first Style-Uz event, which showcases the best of the Uzbek fashion world, saw Rod Stewart and Julio Iglesias perform to an ecstatic Uzbek crowd.

When Iglesias sang, To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before, a million Uzbek fashionistas swooned in unison: “We like being on top of the fashion world and we want more.”

Style.uz is making it loud and clear that Uzbekistan intends to be a couture conoisseur on the International Fashion Scene for years to come. Good news, eh girls?

Posted in Women's Issues