In what is being hailed as a historic milestone for Bhutan’s creative industry, the country is set to host its first fashion week later this year. Bhutan Fashion Week 2025 will run from October through November, featuring designs of over 20 Bhutanese designers across three iconic locations: Bumthang, Paro, and Thimphu.
Bhutan’s first fashion week will be unlike any fashion show the country has seen before.
It will be held across three different themes, highlighting the evolution of Bhutanese textile and fashion.
The historic halls of Wanduechholing Palace in Bumthang will showcase Bhutan’s past, while the vibrant streets of Paro town will turn into a runway, bringing the spotlight on the present.
And Thimphu will set the stage to show how Bhutanese fashion will evolve in the future.
The week-long show promises a scale and vision never attempted in Bhutan.
The event will showcase the nation’s top designers and models alongside international talent. The show is also expected to draw the attention of the region’s fashion magazines and acclaimed photographers.
Show Director Kelly Dorji said the primary focus of the event will be to create a platform for Bhutanese designers. “We are going to showcase them and keep in mind that at the end of the day, the bottom line is that we are going to create a platform and an industry and a market for these designers from Bhutan.”
Sonam Penjor, the Director of DOMCIIP, expressed a similar opinion.
“We had to find a mode that can actually take our designs to the international platform. So that’s when we thought fashion, creations related to fashion can be that mode which will take our designs to the international platform,” said Sonam Penjor.
The Royal Textile Academy has initiated various fashion events celebrating Bhutanese art and artisans. However, the RTA Director Ugyen Tenzin said they were generally smaller in scope, limited in location, scale, and collaboration.
“It is a platform where innovation meets tradition and where our creative industry can shine it its entirety,” added the Director of RTA.
The Creative Director, Lhari, who is also behind the popular fashion social media page Bhutan Street Fashion, said they have been preparing for this event since last year.
“Since December, after we announced to the designers that there would be a fashion week this year in October, we had a lot of entries, and it was followed by a lot of workshops with international professionals, the last one being with the former dean of the National Institute of Fashion Technology,” said Lhari.
The government, last month, said Nu 10 M will go into organising Bhutan Fashion Week.
Samten Dolkar
Edited by Phub Gyem
