INSTEP Magzine


instep profile High heels, high fashion and high society The high end vision of Zeba Husain The lady knows how to play the game. Carnival de Couture, the ultimate fashion fundraiser lead the way to Ensemble and the shop has been launched for an equally good cause - to allow fashion to flow freely across the border. Instep talks to Zeba Husain to discover where she wants to take the movement she's begun. By Aamna Haider Isani

It is an eclectic assortment of designers - after all what do Faiza Samee and Sadaf Malaterre or Kamiar Rokni and Shamaeel have in common as fashion designers? Apparently nothing, but the common denominator amongst them, and the entire group stocking at Ensemble Karachi, is that they are a carefully selected assortment of creative wild flowers who have been handpicked and brought under one roof. Where Kamiar, Sadaf and Shamaeel overwhelm with a western sensibility, Faiza Samee and Umar Sayeed brilliantly reinvent old age charm. To top that off, Indian fashion gurus Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal and Ritu Kumar quench the curiosity that comes with foreign, in this case, Indian designers. This is the retail revolution that is taking the fashionable Pakistani consumer by storm; a woman who prefers to buy clothes off the rack than waste valuable time meeting the designer and ordering clothes through a painstaking process. And when stores like Ensemble pop up on the scene, offering a mouthwatering variety of designers all on the same platter, how can anyone resist? Ensemble is doing for formal clothing what Labels has done for casuals.

And this invaluable step has been taken by Zeba Husain, the woman who has managed to steer high society into fashion consciousness through the Carnival de Couture. Held annually in Karachi, the CDC has placed Sana Safinaz, Rizwan Beyg, Nilofer Shahid and Faiza Samee on the same catwalks as Rohit Bal, Tarun Tahiliani, Suneet Varma, Rina Dhaka and Manish Malhotra. It's an event that has brought Shilpa Shetty, Urmila Matondkar and Arjun Rampal to Pakistan. The CDC is essentially a fund raiser that generates money for the Teachers' Resource Centre, of which Zeba is Chairperson, but thanks to the hype it generates, the CDC is now a platform that is coveted in the fashion industry. It is also the most sought out social ticket of the year.

Zeba Husain is no stranger to fashion and with Ensemble, she confesses that she has used her personal connections with certain Indian designers to bring the first official branch of Tarun Tahiliani's twenty year old multi label boutique to Karachi. "Tarun Tahiliani, as a friend, approached me and said he wanted to do something together," says Zeba, seated in her office at Ensemble. The store has been open for a couple of months now but she has resisted launching this little gem with a bang as big as the one she creates with the fund raiser. Zeba puts it down to settling legalities, but recently, reacting to rumours regarding Ensemble, she has decided to come out with it.

"Tarun was interested in stocking here and his sister Tina (Tahiliani) who manages Ensemble in India will confirm that we are the official stockists of these Indian designers in Pakistan. This is not a franchise - we're working on that – but this is official." From managing Pakistan's biggest fashion show, to setting up one of the most interesting boutique of designers in Karachi, Zeba has made a natural transition from social icon to an iconic entrepreneur. One thing has led to another, strengthening her footing in the fashion industry. So for someone who is so busy, what is the motivation?

"We want to promote Pakistan's fashion designers," Zeba acknowledges with the characteristic smile she is rarely seen without. She is also never seen without a perfect blow dry and perfectly groomed poise. Zeba is beautiful, and obviously that is an added advantage when working through an industry that operates on vanity and narcissism. But she comes with neither. She is warm and gentile - an old student of Kinnaird College Lahore - she is intelligent and as wife of Sheheryar Husain, she is influential. Ensemble is the beginning of a journey she plans to take Pakistani fashion on. "Indian designers are just a selling point," she claims about bringing some of India's most prolific names to Karachi, "but the motive is to build the brand of Pakistan and show the world that we're on good footing. Rizwan (Beyg) proved that last year and made us so proud."

She adds that it's time trade between India and Pakistan was taken on an official level as we are ready. Though trivial in comparison to most exports and imports, "the legal formalities between the two countries are a set back for fashion in Pakistan." "Formal fashion trade between the two countries should happen now," Zeba opines. "India is a bigger market and our designers should be allowed to benefit from that. But it should be done in a bilateral way." Cross communication between designers in Pakistan and India has been catching on for many decades now. Almost every designer has either shown or exhibited in the other country and boasts of roaring business and an impressive list of elite clientele. The catch is that all of this has been happening under the table - nothing legally nor facilitated by the government. Fashion industry exports are restricted to 'suitcase businesses' in which designers carry bags full of collections to sell themselves. It is rather primitive and more so, it's unfortunate since there is some limited trade between India and Pakistan that is considered legal. It is high time fashion was included on that list and some gross revenue generated. Indian designers like Tarun Tahiliani and Rohit Bal do business of over 200 crores a year, relates Zeba and they operate like institutions. Everything is legal, taxes are paid and design houses are set up like corporations with directors and officers handling different departments. The legalization of fashion trade has to happen in Pakistan to set those wheels into motion. And as Zeba says, "Fashion weeks will start that process."

"We need to adapt that system," Zeba says, as her frequent trips to India have given her insight to these operations. "All trade at Ensemble comes via Dubai but after attending a couple of weddings in India this year I know that the Indians are very interested in our designs and especially our cotton, which is a thousand times better than what India has. At weddings in India, more and more people are wearing Pakistani designers." To retail Pakistani and Indian designers together at a commercial outlet is an unprecedented step Zeba has taken; needless to say she could not have managed it without the influence her name has. She has pushed the envelope with retail and with fashion shows (by putting Indian and Pakistani designers on the same platform in Pakistan) and she reveals that she has also offered to take Pakistani designers to India for exposure and publicity.

"India Fashion Week has a regular stream of buyers and I have suggested it to my friends in the industry here that they should go and participate. We should definitely have our own fashion week but until that happens we should benefit from what India has to offer." Yes, but isn't it true that until now India has not allowed foreign designers to participate in their fashion weeks? "Not really," Zeba replies. "A group of designers did recently show at Lakme Fashion Week and I've said that I can be an intermediary for anyone who is interested. The last time Tarun (Tahiliani) was here we did discuss this with Sana Safinaz. Because other than getting Indian designers here at Ensemble, I would want to take Pakistani designers to India. Why shouldn't we benefit from that market?" "My aim is to take Pakistani designers to India," she continues. "Even with the Carnival de Couture, our next step will be to take the show to India for an NGO that works in favour of both countries. We've welcomed them here for many years; it's time they (the Indians) reciprocated the hospitality and the publicity we give them." With the Carnival coming up an d bigger things on her mind, Zeba has passed the management of Ensemble on to her daughter Shehrnaz. "Ensemble Karachi is actually my daughter's brainchild," she says. The store is a fashionable spa for those looking for high end retail therapy. Shehrnaz and Zeba have been bringing in collections hot on the heels of fashion weeks in India. Rohit Bal's Siyaahi collection, shown recently, has already been ordered for spring/summer 2008. Shamaeel made a historic comeback to fashion and joined Ensemble last month. Kami is the latest addition to the store and Zeba informs that they will be launching him formally in a month or two. "Things are quite stable now but people just aren't in the mood for shows and celebrations," Zeba says of the backlash of the state of emergency. That's the main reason the CDC has been postponed to February 8. And because of the change in dates, they have had to replace Sabyasachi Mukherjee with J.J.Valaya from India. From Pakistan, Sana Safinaz will be showing at the Carnival again, along side Umar Sayeed. "Actually the carnival is not just a fashion show," Zeba says. "It's about the drama, which JJ has just as well. And I avoid having two designers because people tend to see them as one against the other." Always politically correct, Zeba has managed to merge fashion and high society in Karachi, but considering the fund raising aspect, rumours claim that the Carnival de Couture hasn't being generating as many funds as it does publicity? "The cost of the show is very high and things are going a bit haywire. I admit TRC isn't benefiting that much. However I don't want to cut corners and compromise on the quality of the show. But whatever we decide is discussed with the committee… the friends of TRC. It's not a dictatorship; it's a family," she laughs. All eyes are on this year's show, and they are on Ensemble too. It's quite an accomplishment for someone who doesn't even belong to the fashion fraternity. But perhaps that's why Zeba Husain has a more holistic view about the progress of the industry and is so successful in promoting and elevating it. She certainly is taking it on the right path, her commitment to fashion retail being the most significant. She is a trendsetter and most certainly will inspire other socialites to follow her example. As with Zahir Rahimtoola who initiated the trend of fashion retail in Pakistan with Labels, Zeba too is fast rising as a force to reckon with. As fashion steps into a brave new world driven by retail and captures the imagination of the shopping public, it is essential that new personalities share the spotlight alongside designers. Fashion cannot be driven by clothes alone. The clothes may be the end product, but getting them into the hands of the end consumer and keeping brands alive in the minds of a public overwhelmed by choice is no easy task. This is when retail stores like Ensemble and events like the Carnival De Couture come in to make fashion pleasureable. Fashion is a business that is larger than life and to be successful in it, one needs flair along with business sense. Zeba Husain fits the bill perfectly.