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designerprofile
The emergence of Nida Azwer
Instep gets to know the young designer who started creating
enough ripples in the fashion scene to win her an LSA nomination
for Emerging Talent
By Muniba
Kamal
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There
are winds of change blowing through the fashion industry. As fashion
gets an all new momentum thanks to the exposure given to it by myriad
TV channels, a growing number of magazines and increased corporatisation
that is giving more spending power, especially to women, Pakistan
is ready willing and able to spend on fashion and all that it has
to offer. And this new environment is throwing up exciting new designers
who come with a new thought process as to how to make their mark on
the industry. One of them is Nida Azwer, who has recently been nominated
in the Emerging Talent category of the Lux Style Awards.
One
knew Nida Azwer socially. Young girl, in her early twenties, petite
to the point of being diminuitive, soft spoken, cheerful and bubbly,
Nida is the antithesis of the diva designers who have made it big.
That is why a |
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to her kaarkhana-come-outlet in Phase II extension in Karachi is a
revelation. A tour though the four storey building reveals one of
the most incredible set ups that I have seen of someone who has only
been designing for three years.
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| Nida Azwer
heads a workforce of 68 people. She has a dyer on the top floor, screen
printing below that, the embroidery department on the second floor
and pattern cutters and tailors on the ground floor. The building
was owned by her mother Zeenat Azwer who ran a garment export business
from there. Now, her mother has moved out and Nida moved in when after
her thesis showing at the Indus Valley School of Arts she started
getting orders for clothes and they kept on coming fast enough for
her to become a full fledged designer. It has to be said that the
building is rather basic and ramshackle, but then again it has to
be said that Nida has only been a designer for three short years now.
However the set up is hugely impressive in terms of functionality.
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And
the room where Nida Azwer meets you has samples hanging of her two
prêt lines, one which is smart and basic and the other where
she indulges her love of embroidery that is so fine that it looks
like it is printed from a distance. There is a rack of her formals,
the off center glamour and richness of which reveals what she is capable
of when she goes all out to make a woman feel like a million dollars.
Nida’s formals show a girl with a great love of tradition but
who is rather untraditional in her way of using it. There is the reinvention
of izaar, traditional pants worn at the ankle, embroidered at edges.
Nida has taken them up the leg capri style and made the embellished
edge much more chunkier. Teamed with a slinky backless halter, you
have an ensemble that is a daring style statement. Or the dusky pink
shirts with heavily worked silver sleeves that give an armoured edge
to a typically pretty outfit. A peshwas is updated with a sleevesless
bodice and is cut in such a way that it can be worn without lowers
as an ultra glam dress. |
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“I
like separates,” says Nida. “It’s much easier when
individual pieces are versatile enough to be worn in different ways.
That is the Maheen and Sonya Battla school of design that reinvented
the way we wear clothes. Designers like Nida are carrying on the tradition
and finding success. So do some of her outfits that are very sexy
indeed find a market.
“It’s working in two ways right now,” she laughs.
“Some clients come and want me to put sleeves on a sleeveless
design, while there are others who want me to take the sleeves off
an outfit and make it more strappy!”
Fashion
in Pakistan is changing at an alarming rate and in a way which is
rather schizophrenic. As the devout clamour for Islamic fashion and
designers tinker with the iodea of catering to them, there is a growing
number of girls who party and they need clothes for that lifestyle
too. Shaadi season is a free |
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| for
all for everybody and designers find that they are willing to cater
to everyone. And prêt is what is exciting Nida who is thinking
about opening a store at the ground level of her kaarkhana.
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“Pret for upto
5000 rupees is not worth the hassle of an appointment,” she
says. “Clients should be able to walk in and buy that in small,
medium or large sizes off the rack. However, for the more formal
clothing, when you are paying far more for an outfit, it is important
that the finished product is the perfect fit and totally to a client’s
liking. So for that, appointments are important.”
With a handle on shalwar kameez, a love of screen printing, a knowledge
of embroidery and embellishment, Nida Azwer will be around on the
fashion scene and she will grow. Her kaarkhana tells you that this
is one young designer serious about business. And the clothes that
she makes show off a flair that will soon become her signature.
Nida Azwer can
be contacted on (021) 5881968 and 0301-8225159
Nida
Azwer’s summer dresses can be viewed on Style sectopm/ |
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