TIBETAN, BY DESIGN

Aj Namo, the first Tibetan fashion designer to hit the big time in China, hopes to change Chinese perceptions about Tibet

Earlier this year, Aj Namo became the first Tibetan fashion designer selected for China Fashion Week, the country’s biggest fashion show. But when the organisers offered her their models, including some of China’s most well known faces, she declined. Instead, she selected young Tibetans from her hometown of Kangba, a small grassland township in western Sichuan, near Tibet. She also eschewed the customary grand fashion show opening, with bright lights and loud music, that Chinese prefer. Instead, her older sister Kelsang sang a Buddhist prayer.

“I asked her to sing because Tibetan culture has the power to make people feel quiet and calm,” says the 32- year- old. Her debut made such an impact that she was invited back, on November 5, for her second show at China Fashion Week. When Aj Namo moved to Beijing 13 years ago, the only Tibetans there were students on government scholarships, or displaced herders who made a living selling handicrafts on city streets. There are only around 6 million Tibetans in China, accounting for less than half a per cent of the 1.4 billion population ( of which more than 90 per cent are Han Chinese). Aj Namo quickly made a name for herself as a singer, appearing on television at a time when Chinese audiences were beginning to pay attention to arts and culture of ethnic minority groups. Now, as many

Tibetans in China worry about the dilution of their culture and sense of identity, she also sees a greater yearning among young Tibetans to rediscover their roots.

“Young Tibetan people have realised that many parts of their culture are missing, and they are trying to rediscover them,” she says. Today, as an established singer and a fast- rising fashion designer, Aj Namo sees herself as an ambassador for Tibetan culture in Beijing. She wants to change pervasive Chinese perceptions of Tibetans and their culture as “backward”, a result of state propaganda. It’s also the right time, as evident in the growing number of young Han Chinese travelling to Tibet “to find themselves”, and her selection for the fashion week. “Tibetan culture is becoming a cool trend here, so many people are wearing Buddha beads now, even if maybe they have no knowledge of Buddhism,” she says. Her next step is to expand her studio in Beijing so that it becomes a platform to spread Tibetan culture, for instance, by bringing in musicians and holding cultural events. She then wants to go global, and hopes to showcase her Tibetan designs in Paris and New York. She also hopes to one day reach out to the Tibetan community in India.

AJ NAMO’S FASHION WEEK SELECTION REFLECTS CHINESE INTEREST IN TIBETAN CULTURE