A flippant side of FASHION

With back to back fashion shows, this past month was more than eventful to say the least. First there was the Karachi Fashion Week, then Bridal Couture Week and then the weekend marked the end of PFDC fashion week. Hoards of glitterati flocked to venues hoping to see some good clothes, to socialize with beautiful people and to amp up their otherwise banal lives. But after a few of these presentations you suddenly start feeling this urge to yawn, as after one or two of them all of the collections start to look very run of the mill and cliché.

As models started to parade down the runway one after another at KFW , one couldn’t help but notice that a lot of clothes lacked that savouir faire,there were western rip offs of Jennifer’s jumpsuits and poor finishing on garments, inconsiderate colour choices and some even resorted to sorry act blatantly copying other Pakistani colleagues as well (most notably new menswear brand copying the older collection of Munib Nawaz).At the couture week, it was battle of extravagance through and through with embellishments so fine and fabrics so regal that they sometimes outshined the actors that wore them. At the PFDC shows,veterans such as HSY and likes stuck to their tried and at times tired designs ,however there were some welcome exceptions ,most notably collections of some recently graduating fashion students and few others such as Khaadi Khaas,Ayesha Hashwani and Kamiar Rokni.Sadly all except few of designer’s lacked the commercial viability ,originality and at times even credibility to be there to present

Eponymous handful of veteran models such Nadia Hussain, Rabia butt and Faiza Ansari stole the show,with the exception of Iraj who at times was on the verge of ‘runway overkill’, the ever elusive Iman Ali  graced one of the ramps,Reema ,Shaan and Wasim Akram also showed up as if we are not tired of watching them on every other TV channel .But all in all zombie-like walks of the newbies added much needed humor and highlighted the apparent lack of capacity building and training at model’s end pretty well.

To the press, organizers touted of portraying ‘softer image’, development of indigenous economy, opportunity for export promotion and blah blah. But what they said was utterly bull crap to me, as we all have heard this before, but at the end of the day their ‘claims’ have failed to materialize .We cannot continue to burry our heads n the sand like ostriches, not anymore at least. Just because we are having more shows it doesn’t mean the industry as a whole is prospering. Non- formalization of modeling contracts, Intellectual property rights violations, lack of sponsors/venture capitalists are some of the problems that still haunt. Moreover, by having worked in this industry I know for sure that having such shows won’t help the domestic textile industry in anyway because most of the designers use imported fabric from south east Asian countries or even worse illegally smuggled fabric from neighboring Afghanistan border.

Besides, its common knowledge that our fashion fraternity lacks the essential ‘espirit–de-corps’, however it should never mean that an industry with less than 100 designers/brands in just 3 cities, should have several representative bodies and hold numerous fashion weeks in a season, whenever their egos may desire. You can’t just have one for the sake of having one, if you want to be taken seriously and earn respect as a proper business and craft.

All of this pejorative write-up should not paint a pessimistic outlook, We all are quite aware of the fact that bridal couture, lawn series and T shirts sell like anything in Pakistan , and hopefully they will continue to do so in future as well

Given the unfavorable exchange rate and a decrease in purchasing power, I predict that the majority of fashion labels wont be viable in the long run if they continue to do business the way they do (by selling one or two avant-garde pieces ,moving to middle east or by selling designer lawn).We would have to reevaluate our business practices and probably our vision as a industry too, if we aim to continue doing the business or otherwise it could fizzle-out like IT bubble in Pakistan.