The show brought together the combined talents of around
25 Japanese ladies and children, and also two local Qatari
designers Asma Sckali and Safia al-Qahtani, writes Anand Holla


The classy traditional silken attire of men and women in Japan was the star of the evening at the Grand Ballroom of The St. Regis Doha. Throughout The Rites of Passage Kimono Fashion Show, kimonos of all hues, variants, and designs, had the audience enthralled.
As the launch event of The St. Regis Cherry Blossom Festival, which is on from April 19 to 25, the kimono show of traditional fashion for women through the ages brought together the combined talents of around 25 Japanese ladies and children, and also two local Qatari designers Asma Sckali and Safia al-Qahtani.
That meant, on display was also an amalgamation of Japanese culture and Qatari couture as Asma’s Sckali Design and Safia’s Angel Line Abaya treated the audience to a unique collection of abaya designs that drew heavily from the elements of Japanese tradition and style.
The Kimono fashion fusion show, in partnership with The Luxury Network, kicked off with a demonstration of the quick tying of Obi demonstration — the sash that ties around the waist. What followed was a delightful crash course in kimono concepts.
Wearing the correct kimono for the various occasions in a person’s life is an integral part of Japanese culture. About one month after a baby is born, the parents and grandparents visit a shrine to celebrate the child’s birth. While the baby girl wears a bright-coloured kimono, the baby boy wears a black kimono featuring celebratory patterns of the family crest.
Kimono master and artistic director of the show, Suemi Nishiwaki kept describing the dresses and their significance in Japanese culture even as models togged in the choicest of kimonos and abayas, sashayed down the ramp. The audience sure got an eyeful of both Japanese and Arabian chic.
Three kids accompanied by their mothers showed off the kids’ line of Shi-Chi-Go-San kimono, which, in Japan, girls aged three or seven and boys aged five wear when they go to the local shrine in November to offer thanks for their health and growth.
The chunk of range came with Furisodes, which are kimonos with long flowing sleeves. These are won only by unmarried women as a formal wear for celebratory functions such as wedding party, a Coming-of-Age ceremony, a tea ceremony, or New Year celebration. The rule is that longer the sleeve, the more formal the kimono.
There was also the Jusan-Mairi kimono that 13-year-old children wear when visiting a temple to pray for knowledge, happiness and health to become adult on April 13; and the Hakama, which is a formal divided skirt worn over the kimono. While some boys wear kimono and hakama on Coming-of-Age Day and at their graduation ceremonies, female students these days like to wear female hakama as a kind of formal dress too.
The extremely formal kimono worn only by brides is the Uchikake. Worn like a robe over another kimono without the obi sash, it is usually brocaded or embroidered with the motif of congratulations such as cranes, pines, flowing water and flowers.
The fashion fusion programme was painstakingly developed and choreographed between multiple teams in Qatar and Japan, who transported 26 kimonos, and a stash of equipment, hair and makeup stylists and flowers.
Leanne Mills, Director of Marketing, The St. Regis Doha, told Community, “The concept was to showcase beautiful Japanese kimonos. We felt that if we are bringing these ladies all the way here and putting on a fashion event, it would be such a waste if we didn’t try and meld the Japanese couture with Arab couture.”
Mills added, “Sckali design was really interested in developing some abayas that would show the beauty of kimonos but in an Arabic way. So we introduced, through Luxury Network, the Kimono master and her team to the Sckali designers. They had a discussion on the various elements of the kimono and came up with a great range.”
Qatari designer Asma Sckali said, “The idea was that the Japanese show us their culture and we show them ours. But we have fused our cultures and our inspired collection of abayas relates the kimono with abaya. To do so, we have borrowed stylistic elements such as the cut of the sleeve, or the belt they wear, or even the material itself.”
The Japanese cultural festival week at The St. Regis Doha has chosen the cherry blossom or ‘sakura’ season as its theme because it heralds the arrival of spring in Japan. For long, the cherry blossom has captured the attention of poets, artists and people alike for its symbolism and the custom of flower-viewing known as hanami.
“Cherry blossom is about community. The Japanese get together and they like to celebrate the blossom,” said Mills, “So for arts, culture, couture, food, bringing everything under the cherry blossom banner seemed like a great opportunity for the hotel to do lots of events, welcome the community and just do something different.”
It’s about having a week where families can get together, feels Mills. “We have got different events that are very family-oriented but we have also got events where women can come in big groups and do flower-arranging and have afternoon tea,” she said.
As for bringing Japanese fashion designers down to Doha, this may only be the beginning. “Sckali, for instance, has managed to bring kimono design into abaya design. So it would be interesting to bring Japanese designers here and ask them to look at the Arab culture and do the fusion, in the opposite way of what we have done at this event,” said Mills.
Among several names that made the evening a success was the co-artistic director Hiroko Kitazume. As the wife of Yukio Kitazume, Japan’s former ambassador to Qatar from 2007 to 2010, Hiroko was very active in community events during her stay in Doha, and her understanding of Qatar further helped bring the show together, the organisers said.
Meanwhile, the cynosure of all mobile phone cameras was the kimono queen Nishiwaki. Known as one of the most prolific kimono collectors of Japan — she has more than 1,000 of them — Nishiwaki has flown down to Doha from Yamaguchi Prefecture where she is the Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies at the university.
“To make a kimono takes half a year,” said Nishiwaki, who has since 2003, performed kimono shows across the world.
When asked whether she would take back some inspiration from the abaya with her, to apply it to the kimono, she said, “The big difference is that the kimono fits the body but the abaya flows loose. So the abaya cannot be applied to the kimono but the kimono can certainly be applied to abaya. I hope to be back soon to explore more of this connection.”