Kazakhstan Dress Code

Not that outrageous by the standards here

When we were getting ready to travel one of the things that seemed to be emphasized over and over is how well the Kazaks dress. We were encouraged to leave our faded jeans behind and bring nicer things to wear or we would stand out.

So now the reality. Yes, the majority of women dress up to go out and I haven’t seen a pair of ripped jeans since I got here. But dress up means that if they are under 30 they wear high-heeled boots, tight jeans (dark not light) and lots of make-up and over 30 they look like grandma going to church. There doesn’t seem to be any in-between.

The men wear dark dress pants, pointed (really pointed) shoes and dark jackets – often leather. Think Neo in The Matrix.

So the reality is that unless this is how you actually dress, nothing in your wardrobe is going to make you not stand out. Plus as soon as you open your mouth you are tagged as a foreigner. So my advice is to wear what makes you comfortable and ignore the stares as they are going to happen anyway. If you want to temper it a bit invest in a couple of pairs of black jeans and a wool coat (it is still cold here in April) which is what I did. There is no way they are getting me into one of those pairs of pointed shoes though.