Whether it’s the joy of dyeing cloth with pomegranates, the age-old practicality of turning sheep wool into felts and knits, or the rich legacy of complex embroideries and silk Ikat weaving, Central Asian textile traditions are bonded by cultural meaning and a respect for skilled craft and the natural world. And resources: nothing gets thrown away, as this week’s guest Aigerim Akenova explains through her love for patchwork - her nomadic ancestors' answer to upcycling.
Aigerim is the country co-ordinator of Fashion Revolution Kazakhstan. With a global outlook (studied in Milan, lives in California), she's also a contemporary Kazakh designer determined to centre sustainability in the national fashion conversation, as the country she was born and raised in scales up its design and creative industries.
Still, the big money in this former Soviet territory of 19 million people, remains in mining. The economy is based on oil, coal, gas, plus things like copper, aluminium, zinc, bauxite and gold. As Aigerim puts it: "We've got the whole periodic table." And Kazakhstan is the world's largest uranium producer.
What role could sustainable fashion play in growing newer, lower carbon industries here in line with SDGs? What do young urban Kazakhs and Central Asians in neighbouring countries want from the fashion today? As well as its craft heritage, Kazakhstan has a vibrant modern fashion scene, its own fashion week, and (doesn’t everywhere?) fast fashion - so how can these two sides find balance in future? Aigerim says we have much to learn from nomadic traditions of sustainable clothing systems.
Aigerim at Salone di Mobile, Milan, in 2022.
FASHION REVOLUTION WEEK 2023 is themed Manifesto For a Fashion Revolution. See all the points below. Add your signature here.
NOTES & LINKS
FASHION REVOLUTION KAZAKHSTAN was formed in 2019. Find them here and on Instagram here.
ABOUT AIGERIM AKENOVA Fash Rev Kazakhstan’s country coordinator is a multidisciplinary artist & designer working in fashion, textile and narrative design. Her brand AIKEN is a pioneer when it comes to establishing a sustainable business model in her country, where she’s given a TED Talk, and partnered with UNDP Kazakhstan. She gained her MA in New Tech.Style Design in Politecnico di Milano, BA in Fashion & Textile Design in IED Milano and degree in Fashion Design FIDM Los Angeles and has worked in the fashion industry in Europe and the US as well as Central Asia. In 2022, she was part of the Ethical Fashion Initiative’s Homeware Accelerator program, and showed at Milan Design Week.
Design by Aiken, made in Kazakhstan.
The EFI Accelerator supports brands like Camel Wool in Turkmenistan, photographed here, to grow their local supply chains , creating work for artisans and craftspeople.
In 2021, the ETHICAL FASHION INITIATIVE HOMEWARE ACCELERATOR started working with five Central Asian designers and design studios, based in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, to grow their businesses and access international markets. They include:
Kyrgyzstan-based UYA Nomad by designer Altynai Osmoeva offers minimalist pieces that reflect world heritages and artisan lore from all over the world. ORO, founded by Murodjon Sharifov, is a design studio located in Tajikistan committed to the creation of experimental projects that intertwine art with Central Asian traditions. Tigran Erdman, an Uzbek design studio, is the product of Artem Erdman, an industrial designer that works with numerous raw materials including plywood, wood, and silk. Aigerim Akenova’s AIKEN is a Kazakhstan-based label that has been a pioneer in sustainable practices in the country. Lastly, headquartered in Turkmenistan, Camel Wool by Shasenem Garlyyeva offers all-natural dye-free products made using 100% camel wool, a staple in Turkmen culture.
In June 2022, they showcased at Milan Design Week. More here.
Listen to The Ethical Fashion Podcast here.
KAZAKHSTAN is population of 19 million people. In the west it extends from the Capsian sea and next door in the south is Uzbekistan,
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES The Polygon was the name given to the Soviet Union’s primary nuclear weapons testing site at Semipalatinsk in the north east of the country. There were 456 nuclear detonations here over a 40 year period. It’s weirdly underreported if you ask me. From 1949 to 1989, the Soviets exploded more than 50 megatons of nuclear weapons at Semipalatinsk, the equivalent of 3,333 bombs the size of the one dropped on Hiroshima, according to documents distributed by the National Nuclear Center. The Nature journal article that reveals its legacy in 2019 is behind a paywall. This article talks about it being a “dark tourism” destination, which is insanity surely. TOGZHAN KASSENOVA’s book about it came out last year - find it here.
The Aral Sea in 1989 (left) and 2014 (right)
The ruin of the ARAL SEA is much more widely reported. Once the fourth-largest freshwater lake in the world, the Aral Sea today is a tenth of its original size. We’ve shared these pics before but here they are again. One of the major culprits? Over-irrigation for Uzkekistan’s cotton. Here’s a bright spot though, on the Kazakh side - BBC reports things are improving in the north and some fishing communities have been able to return.
Alima, FW 2022-2023.
Kazakhstan has its own fashion week in the form of VISA FASHION WEEK ALMATY, which began five years ago. It happens in May. Forbes emerging fashion markers reporter Stephan Rabimov writes that “designers have benefited from Almaty, the former Kazakh capital, stepping up its role as the center for traditional and modern expression of Central Asian cultures.” Discover new designers here.
Read about the country’s growing contemporary clothing, tailoring and textile industry here.
TEXTILE TRADITIONS Aigerim describes how Kazakh nomads, like those in Mongolia, live in YURTS. These are often richly decorated and Kazakh craft traditions include EMBROIDERY, carpets, woodwork, silversmithing. While practical WOOL and leather have always been staples, Kazakh traditional dress is often richly embellished with elaborate needlework and sometimes coins.
SILK HAS A RICH HISTORY IN THE REGION Elmira Gyul writes the ikats of Central Asia about in Textiles and clothing along the Silk Roads (access the book here): “The spread of resist-dyeing technology in Asia was associated with the Silk Roads – the famous trade routes along which not only goods but also ideas moved. Trade with China, the military expansion of the Arabs, and the new aesthetic ideals introduced with the new religion of Islam, contributed to the rooting of ikat fabrics in Mawarannahr. One of the brightest periods in Central Asian history was the reign of Timur and his descendants (the last third of the fourteenth– fifteenth century). Did people use Ikats in his vast empire? The Spanish diplomat and traveller, Ruy González Clavijo, who visited the court of the great ruler in Samarkand in 1404, mentioned ‘silk fabrics of different colours’ in his memoires. However, it is difficult to say if those fabrics were made using the resist-dyeing technique. Timurid and Sheibanid miniature paintings depict men and women wearing clothes made of plain fabrics or fabrics decorated with small floral and almond-shaped patterns, but not ikats.Bukhara and Khiva textiles are mentioned, among others, in Russian documents dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries CE, which were related to diplomatic and trade relations of the Moscow state, with Central Asian possessions known as kutni zendennye (cotton and silk fabrics of satin weave) and obyarinnaya zenden (embroidered moiré silk, monochromatic and ornamented with the method of binding before weaving). Sayera Makhkamova (an Uzbek scholar of Central Asian ikat textiles) believes that the terms obyarinnaya, obyar, obir are distortions of the word abr (the local name of ikats in Central Asia) and, in this case, it is Bukhara and Khiva ikats that are mentioned.”
Woman’s Robe (munisak), 1850–75. Uzbekistan, Bukhara. Silk: velvet ikat; overall: 132.1 x 150 cm (52 x 59 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Arlene C. Cooper 2009.267
“Dazzling ikat velvet robes, the most sumptuous, expensive, and prestigious type of ikat, were worn throughout Central Asia by men and women. This resplendent robe with a V-shaped neckline, fitted torso, and slightly flaring skirt features stylized blossoming plants, pomegranates, and auspicious curved ram’s horns, all with irregular contours of the resist-dye ikat technique. Such female robes were culturally significant in Central Asia. Made for wedding dowries with fabric from the groom’s family, women wore munisaks for rites of passage throughout their lives, as a bride, at family festivals, and funerals.” - via Cleveland Museum of Art.
P.S. “The run-up to Earth Day has ballooned into a month-long marketing moment, even as regulators try to crack down on empty sustainability claims,” says BoF’s Sarah Kent. Do you agree? Join the conversation on Instagram & Twitter @mrspress. And don’t miss our unparalleled nothing-t0-sell here interviews each week. For Earth Day, we’ve got the magnificent scientist/author magical thinker - Merlin Sheldrake. Woot! Can’t wait? Relisten to last year’s Earth Day convo, Ep 165 “More Trees Please!” with Greg Moore, and Ep 140 from 2020 with Canopy’s Nicole Rycroft.