LOCAL fashion designers told the Myanmar Times last week, that while a fashion week similar to that staged in Thailand would be welcome here, the local industry is still in its embryonic stages and not developed enough to support such an international event.

The designers the Myanmar Times spoke to said that owing to local culture and traditions fashion shows in Myanmar are far less jaw-droppingly spectacular than those overseas. There is also no such thing as couture culture, where designers make one-off pieces, which can not be bought off-the-rack and customers must go directly to the designer if they want to wear their designs.

There was also a lot less experimentation with fashion norms, than in other countries, the designers said.

“I think there should be a fashion week in Myanmar, so our country can keep up with international fashion trends.” Yukiko Kyi, of Hikari Design Training Centre, said.

“But we have a lot of designing still to do, before we can show our clothes on an international level,” she added.

So far, there has been no event such as the Thai fashion week, in Myanmar.
John Lwin, of Stars and Models International, has been the only one to organise large, annual fashion shows. He has organised shows at FMI Centre, Dagon Centre and most recently at Grand Plaza Parkroyal Hotel in August, 2004, which ran over two days. He told the Myanmar Times he is currently in the process of organising an event for next month.

“I really appreciate the purpose of Thai fashion week since reading about it, and I wish there was a fashion week in Myanmar,” May Moe Thu, owner of Po Wa cotton wears, told the Myanmar Times. “I think it is good that new creations can be seen and it is good for the fashion movement. But my designs are very traditional. I wonder whether international models actually wear the clothes that they have worn on stage, when they go out,” she said.

May Moe Thu’s designs were showcased at a fashion show organised by Lwin last year, but ordinary women on the street can also be seen wearing them. There is not the same sense of exclusivity associated with designer fashion in Myanmar, as there is overseas.

Ko Tatee, director of the Tatee Design School, took part in Asian Fashion Week 2004 in Kuala Lampur. He said this of his experience: “The standard of the fashion week was very high, equal to that of shows in places like London and Paris.”

To stage a fashion week in Myanmar that is on par with similar events held around the world every year, the fashion designers the Myanmar Times spoke to said they would have to create more unusual designs than they have done so far, and put tradition and culture aside.

But in many instances, designers from around the world have taken their inspiration from their country’s traditions of dress, and then played with it.
“At the moment, we are just starting to become aware of international trends. Although locals do have very good ideas, they’re still weak in the skills required to communicate those ideas, and those skills are necessary if you want to show your work at the international level,” Yukiko Kyi said.

May Moe Thu agreed: “International designs are really strange for us. I think that the current local creations are not even close to that because local designers mostly prioritize creating items of clothing that will be accepted locally.”

“The designs at the Thai fashion week were free-formed and extravagant. They would be impossible to wear down the street, but I have learnt that we need to create clothes like that in order to build our name and our individual style,” Ko Tatee said.