Just when everyone thought the Duchess of Cambridge had the award for most fashionable new royal of 2011 in the bag, competition has emerged from an unlikely source: Bhutan. The fashion world is rapidly developing a new royal girl-crush on 21-year-old international relations student Jetsun Pema, who became queen of the tiny Himalayan country at her wedding last month.
As with the royal wedding at Westminster Abbey in April, the bride brought style to a ceremony steeped in tradition. The wedding procession was accompanied by elephants, drumming monks and clouds of incense, but the bride's wedding outfit – a traditional ankle-length wrapped dress known as a kira – was made in mustard yellow, a shade anointed as a key colour for autumn on the catwalks of both Donatella Versace and Victoria Beckham. What's more, in having taken more than three years to weave, the craftmanship of the kira outdid even the handstitched lace gown made by seamstresses under Sarah Burton's watchful eye for Kate Middleton.
The bridal kira featured sleeves in a contrasting shade of fuchsia pink, echoing the trend for "contrast sleeves" currently seen at Burberry and Yves Saint Laurent, and was teamed with shoes with striped block heels similar to those currently on sale in Fendi. She finished her look with a pair of statement earrings (very Miuccia Prada).
What's more, the Queen of Bhutan has a secret style weapon which the Duchess of Cambridge cannot boast: a husband with a strongly developed sense of style. Her 31-year-old husband, Jigme – known as K5 because he is the fifth king of the century-old Wangchuck dynasty – is a keen photographer with a distinctive haircut that has drawn comparisons with Elvis Presley.
Like her British counterpart, the Bhutanese royal bride is a symbol of change and modernity in her country. As part of the country's bid to modernise, the new king has called time on Bhutan's traditional form of polygamy, in which a man marries a set of sisters rather than just one woman. When the engagement was announced, the king announced this bride would be his only wife. The wedding was attended by all four "Queen Mothers", the sisters to whom the king's father is married.
Bhutan has only three dentists, and the country's first escalator was installed just last month. However, the ruling family has proved forward-thinking in some aspects. In the 1980s, more than two decades before David Cameron announced his "happiness index" initiative, the ruling king of Bhutan introduced the gross national happiness index, which measures social harmony, personal contentment and the continuation of Bhutanese traditions and culture, and which is ranked as a more important indicator of success in Bhutan than GDP.
Fashion is a relatively new import in Bhutan, a largely Buddhist country where television was banned until 1999, and Bhutanese citizens are required by law to wear national dress in public places. But the notion self-expression through clothes is gaining traction among the younger generation. A Facebook page for "Bhutan street fashion" features the motto: "Appearance is sufficient to make people more interested in your soul."
courtesy:The Guardain on Facebook
As with the royal wedding at Westminster Abbey in April, the bride brought style to a ceremony steeped in tradition. The wedding procession was accompanied by elephants, drumming monks and clouds of incense, but the bride's wedding outfit – a traditional ankle-length wrapped dress known as a kira – was made in mustard yellow, a shade anointed as a key colour for autumn on the catwalks of both Donatella Versace and Victoria Beckham. What's more, in having taken more than three years to weave, the craftmanship of the kira outdid even the handstitched lace gown made by seamstresses under Sarah Burton's watchful eye for Kate Middleton.
The bridal kira featured sleeves in a contrasting shade of fuchsia pink, echoing the trend for "contrast sleeves" currently seen at Burberry and Yves Saint Laurent, and was teamed with shoes with striped block heels similar to those currently on sale in Fendi. She finished her look with a pair of statement earrings (very Miuccia Prada).
What's more, the Queen of Bhutan has a secret style weapon which the Duchess of Cambridge cannot boast: a husband with a strongly developed sense of style. Her 31-year-old husband, Jigme – known as K5 because he is the fifth king of the century-old Wangchuck dynasty – is a keen photographer with a distinctive haircut that has drawn comparisons with Elvis Presley.
Like her British counterpart, the Bhutanese royal bride is a symbol of change and modernity in her country. As part of the country's bid to modernise, the new king has called time on Bhutan's traditional form of polygamy, in which a man marries a set of sisters rather than just one woman. When the engagement was announced, the king announced this bride would be his only wife. The wedding was attended by all four "Queen Mothers", the sisters to whom the king's father is married.
Bhutan has only three dentists, and the country's first escalator was installed just last month. However, the ruling family has proved forward-thinking in some aspects. In the 1980s, more than two decades before David Cameron announced his "happiness index" initiative, the ruling king of Bhutan introduced the gross national happiness index, which measures social harmony, personal contentment and the continuation of Bhutanese traditions and culture, and which is ranked as a more important indicator of success in Bhutan than GDP.
Fashion is a relatively new import in Bhutan, a largely Buddhist country where television was banned until 1999, and Bhutanese citizens are required by law to wear national dress in public places. But the notion self-expression through clothes is gaining traction among the younger generation. A Facebook page for "Bhutan street fashion" features the motto: "Appearance is sufficient to make people more interested in your soul."
courtesy:The Guardain on Facebook
