What they're wearing in Bhutan right now: fashion show in Thimphu

My first night in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, was spent at a glamorous fashion parade. My second night was spent sitting on a farmhouse kitchen floor, eating rice with my fingers with a family of potato farmers.

Curve ball tourism?

Absolutely the place to be in Thimphu this week was the fashion parade that marked the opening of the new National Textile Museum building. 

Everyone was there. Even one of 

Bhutan’s five queens – who is the museum’s patron – was there, with plenty of princes and princesses into tow, mobbed by Bhutan’s paparazzi and observed eagerly and reverentially by the rest of the population.

The dress that brought the house
down and the crowd to its feet.

The fashion show was a collaboration of designers from Bhutan’s fledgling fashion industry and two Indian designers, the Bollywood designer Rita Kumar and the fabulously suave Rajesh Pratap Singh. 

Models were a mix of locals and Mumbai imports: the super-Indians had the strut and polish, while a few Bhutanese girls radiated shyness. The boys were all doing their best ‘OMG-my-girlfriend-talked-me-into-this’ look and, in a country that created Gross National Happiness, they all had perfected the p*** off stare.

The show ran through  the latest kiras (women’s traditional dress) and ghos (men’s wrap), which must be worn at work and for official functions. 

Having said that, I have seen farmers happily striding the paddocks in the gho, usually tartan, which looks like a shave coat worn with a pair of long socks. It is more attractive than it sounds, while the kiras, shimmering with gold threat, were beautiful.

Then INXS kicked up and the designers let their heads go. True to form, the paparazzi’s cameras went into overdrive whenever a mini-skirt came on the catwalk (rare) but the biggest applause was for a fairytale gown that swept the floor. 

A traditional kira.

It really showed another face of Bhutan: there wasn’t a hiking boot in sight, and it was touching to see the Bhutanese absolutely bursting with pride for their beautiful new building and the fashions by their own.

They were also extremely lucky, as the monsoon season seems to have come early this year – it generally doesn’t kick off till late June, early July – there was not one drop of rain on the elaborate outdoor production. I assume it was the work of the lamas, who dictated when the building should be opened.

“But then, the lamas were consulted as to when the elections should take place, and they were rained out,” commented one (foreign) cynic.  

For a country that got TV in 1999, they’ve come a long way, baby.