"Aysel" - a treasury of art objects and ethno-fashion collections

The Aysel Art Gallery and Art Studio is one of the most successful and largest galleries in Samarkand. It brings together the Samarkand artists-members of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan since 1992.

Originally it was a small art gallery named “Alphia”, which from the beginning set itself the task to promote arts and crafts of Uzbekistan. A quick look right off the bat is enough to appreciate the whole diversity and cultural value of the objects of art collected in the Art Gallery.

The best examples of the products of Samarkand craftsmen who continue to hand on the lamp of their grandfathers and their fathers, the paintings and sculptures by talented contemporary artists who have won a name both in Uzbekistan and abroad, as well as the best works of Uzbekistan photographers became gems of numerous displays and exhibitions in Tashkent, Moscow, Paris, etc from the beginning of the art gallery’s history.

But the focus of the Aysel studio is concentrated on national silk fabrics. It began experiments with different treatment methods of national fabrics by combination and decoration, employing both modern technologies and half-remembered old-time methods

Today, Aysel is a creative association of Samarkand talented fashion designers and textile artists, who embody their individual vision and original ideas in the collections of ethnic clothes. Shows of fashion collections created by them enjoy great demand and are held both in Uzbekistan and abroad.

The success in the fashion world prompted the authors to create the Fashion Theater - the first and only one in Samarkand - to demonstrate recent collection of Samarkand designers to Uzbekistan people and tourists. The models use traditional intricate embroidery, printed patterns, decorative prints, and even fragments of ancient fabrics, at the same time, the designers take into account the global trends in fashion, so the collections are always not only original, but also modern.

If 10-15 years ago, the ethnic style attracted only the very few, today a dress in Uzbek style is a necessary item in the wardrobe of every fashionmonger. The ethnic style is a "highlight" of the dresses of lionnes, at public events and fashionable parties, and the Uzbek fabrics have inspired the recognized fashion designers in Europe and America to creation of new images.

Photos are provided by Aysel art gallery