Instep: Tell us about the upcoming PSFD initiative to host a fashion week in Lahore?
 Ammar Belal: This is a fantastic time for fashion, with three of our established fashion designers having shown at Milan and then a subsequent follow up with Pakistan's first fashion week in Karachi. If we start now on the right foot, we can set a precedent and propel the industry forward. I think what the Fashion Council in Lahore is doing is very fair, 'bari bari kar lo', as Sehr Saigol said. That way fashion doesn't have to be a tale of two cities and we don't have to brand it as a Karachi or Lahore fashion week. Both councils should then get equal representation and most importantly, talent from both these quarters will get a fair chance to show case. For an editor, buyer or designer, it's a nightmare to do two fashion weeks. If I could get the fraternity together to collaborate on the fashion museum project, then we can certainly hope for a cohesive fashion week. It's all about making the right compromises. I got all sorts of attitude and ego from every conceivable place and took a lot of shit to pull this through. But we all just need to be selfless and try to think of the big picture, and the results, as you can all see, are phenomenal.
Instep: How are your trips to New York coming along?
AB: New York is my outlet to unleash the suppressed creativity in me. My business here focuses on very conservative classic men's wear which can't be very experimental since it's quite expensive. We use only the finest imported fabric and it's a very high end quality product. So the more expensive something is, the more safe it has to be for it to be a good buy for clients. In this domain I can't create the crazy funky experiments that I want to do as a designer. Plus the clothes I design for women are street fashion and club fashion. Neither exists in Pakistan since there is no street culture here. In New York I can experiment; which is what I do for a very small retail store like Patricia Field, where even the odd celebrity shops along with drag queens, show girls, gay men, straight men. It's a very small store sort of an under ground fashion outlet. It's got an interesting and eclectic clientele. I design for a day in London or New York, where a woman can wear an edgy funky jacket with white jeans and walk to wherever she needs to go. Right now I'm taking it very slow and steady here because I do want to pursue my brand abroad.
Instep: Did you feel the need to slow down?
AB: After the whole brand building for 'Ammar Belal' the label for men, I just wanted to design for street fashion, which I did with ABCD and it was the same thirst that whisked me off to USA.
Initially I used to just sell my jeans at the Patricia Field store. But this time they took fewer of my jeans, but took all of my women's wear such as the see through lace jeans, jodhpur skirts, military and Michael Jackson inspired jackets, just crazy stuff. The most liberating part was that every time I showed them something crazy they asked me to go even wilder. You need to understand I'm a designer who comes from a place where they've always asked me to put a sleeve on clothes and the fact that I can't make a kameez just speaks volumes for the kind of designer I am.
Instep: You have a very different business plan from the rest of the fashion designers here…
AB: I don't necessarily want to become 'big'. I have my Ammar Belal men's wear brand where we do quite well I believe. We do immaculate suits with an extreme focus on quality which nobody is doing here. We design it and we get the best for our clients.
Instep: What is your plan for your store?
AB: Well with the recession, retail is having a hard time anyway. We can't compare it to what it was 3-5 years ago. So we have consolidated our stores and just concentrating on men's wear. Our plans are to launch a diffusion line because the Euro and the dollar are just skyrocketing to the rupee which really affects my business. We are just two years old with the Ammar Belal brand. Because I have been around the fashion scene for the last seven years people confuse it with my store. The store is very young and we import but we sell with our own local brand name. The problem here is that when people import they import with a foreign brand name so people think why pay for a local brand when you can get a foreign one at the same price. We have taken a long road on this saying 'no, we don't want to sell something that just says Armani on it.' The idea is to the get a Pakistani designer, cut and philosophy but by using the best resources from around the world.
Instep: Stocking Antique Jeans also makes you a buyer. So what of that?
AB: I started out with jeans. It's what I know best. The Ammar Belal brand is what I do for business, but then I keep doing these few things that help fulfil me creatively. I still do custom designed jeans for my clients. So when I was in LA I saw all these underground brands such as Antique Jeans, Citizens of Humanity and Adriano Goldschmied and met them and they asked me to launch these labels in Pakistan. So I did a denim show and did just that. I was so sick of people just wearing the same brand. In Pakistan everyone is obsessed with main stream labels such as Diesel and Levis. The people who are avid denim lovers know of AG jeans and Citizens of Humanity. So I do the customised jeans and these brands provide the best denim from LA. But they're not for everybody.
Instep: What's next on the agenda?
AB: Sherwanis!
Instep: Are you serious?
AB: Yeah, I am making a confederate soldier sherwani for a white guy. Imagine! The people who are going to be wearing sherwanis from Ammar Belal would probably be like Neo from The Matrix. They have to wear pants underneath them. We don't do sherwanis for people who have a serious shahzada or Mughal complex! I mean seriously! We turn around to people and say, 'look we're not going to make you look like Quaid-e-Azam or Zahiruddin Babar or Humayun or Shah Jehan or anyone from that lot. Why don't we just treat the sherwani for what it is and stop filling your shoulders with ounces of work?' So we approach the sherwani on a cut basis. What if the sherwani had no work on it? It's basically a beautifully cut coat with a Nehru collar. That's all it is. So contemporary sherwanis for contemporary grooms.
Instep: So how will you market this contemporary sherwani?
AB: Well first my wife said 'why don't you wear it and model. I turned around and said, 'no way! This is not going to be about me wearing a god damn sherwani! That era is over! I am done with being a media creature.' On a serious note, I am currently in talks with someone and we will just put out our ad and see how it goes! |
