Fashion is on the march! Afghans get designer burqas

**Grimmlok** · July 10th, 2006, 02:13 PM

to its first fashion show in decades, with models displaying designer garments at a hotel in the capital, Kabul.
The show, which made the news on Afghanistan's Tolo TV channel, attracted an audience of expatriates and well-to-do Afghans.

Clothes made from Afghan textiles, including fashion burqas, were shown off by non-Afghan models to the accompaniment of traditional local music.

Organisers said they did not want to court controversy by using models from the conservative Muslim country.

The Taleban, who ruled the country in the 1990s before being ousted in 2001, enforced laws requiring women to cover themselves from head to toe.

Nearly five years after the Taleban's fall, many Afghan women still choose to cover up completely when in public.

Balancing act

One of the designers behind the show, Italian Isabella Ghidoni, told Reuters: "We invited a lot of Afghan women to attend the show but not to be models."

The garments on display were body-skimming rather than skimpy, and covered the models' chests, legs and arms.

Nooria Farhad, one of those in the audience, harboured her own hopes for the future.

"It will be much better and more effective if, in future, our Afghan models do fashion shows and show the world Afghan clothes," she said.

"But we know many families still do not allow their daughters to do things like this."

Fashion sense

Ms Ghidoni and her partner, Afghan designer Zolaykha Sherzad, started off by training women in fashion and jewellery design and went on to sell their creations in Kabul shops.

Ms Sherzad said small fashion shows were held in the city before war broke out in the late 1970s.

"There's not much in terms of the fashion we see in the West but there is fashion within a private environment, within the houses," she said.

"People like to be fashionable."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5163282.stm

**Delphinium** · July 10th, 2006, 02:24 PM

okay so someone post pictures..

**Grimmlok** · July 10th, 2006, 02:26 PM

**burnt_toast** · July 10th, 2006, 02:28 PM

Yay!! I love the sparkly burqas!

**Lobelia** · July 10th, 2006, 02:30 PM

I love the sparkly burqas, but I am ashamed that I enjoy them. I forgot why I'm supposed to be ashamed, but there you go.

**moomies** · July 10th, 2006, 02:34 PM

Don't want to offend anyone so I'll just post a link.

(BOOBIES NSFW)

http://www.drencrom.com/cyber%20jiha...pages/001.html

**Lobelia** · July 10th, 2006, 02:35 PM

*faints*

**burnt_toast** · July 10th, 2006, 02:40 PM

Originally Posted by moomies

Don't want to offend anyone so I'll just post a link.

http://www.drencrom.com/cyber%20jiha...pages/001.html

Oh my, that just made my day!!

**heart_leigh** · July 10th, 2006, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by moomies

Don't want to offend anyone so I'll just post a link.

http://www.drencrom.com/cyber%20jiha...pages/001.html

Goodness gracious! As soon as I clicked on the link, I bursted out laughing.

I like the pink burqas unlike the usual black burqas. It must be so hot to wear them.

**Grimmlok** · July 10th, 2006, 02:42 PM

NOT WORK SAFE! GAH!

Put a warning on that@

**moomies** · July 10th, 2006, 02:50 PM

Sorry Grimms, warning added.

**Sojiita** · July 10th, 2006, 06:23 PM

**MrsMarsters** · July 10th, 2006, 07:27 PM

you guys are a crackup

**UndercoverGator** · July 10th, 2006, 07:52 PM

Can I get one of those burqas in the same Elvis themed material one of my sets of scrubs is in?

**Karizma** · July 11th, 2006, 05:46 AM

I am so not for burqas but if the Afghans are for it i appreciate the show organizators respected the tradition of Afghanis and presented a very decent show.