INSTEP Magzine


tribute The women of Revived At the launch of Revived: The Journey Within, Imran Aslam paid glowing tribute to the women of the fashion industry that the book honours

I'm dazzled. Thank you. Ladies, very lovely ladies, and I'm not saying gentlemen, because it's Women's Day and they can take a backseat… again. Fourteen exceptional, dynamic and intriguing women are being celebrated today but I'd like to start by paying tribute to the 15th – Kiran and the 16th – Khadija, who have carved out a work of exquisite artistry which will adorn our shelves and coffee tables but will also embellish our minds. Kiran and Khadija have tried to capture shadows that are mischievous, capricious and glacial, like moods that descend on us from where we do not know and go quickly into oblivion. They are explorers, cartographers charting the ebbs and flows of life, chronicling adventures, fears, triumphs and tears shed silently in the night and dreams that fade at the kiss of a stark unforgiving dawn we call reality.

Women for centuries have been denied space and so for them the body is their very own possession to decorate, to adorn, to pierce, to paint, to costume. This is their mortal coil which makes poets of us lesser mortals. These are the faces that launch a thousand odes. Thank you Kiran and Khadija, for celebrating the muses of our time. They have all defied the stereotypes, denied their traditional role expectations, juggled several lives with quicksilver ease, inhaled the stultifying suffocating air of a moribund landscape permeated by orthodoxy and exhaled hope in a breathing pattern the future must emulate not only to survive but to build on. To inspire. To provoke. The monochrome photographs of these remarkable women as they journey through life are reminders of the colours they have spread far and wide. Baring their soul while retaining their intrinsic beauty, their sensuality, their sensitivity and their magical creativity.

When I saw the list of women in Kiran's collection I felt humbled. Here were people who define our times. What states did they go through to find themselves on these pages that will immortalize them? Can we gather the dew? Can we observe the subtle reconfigurations of fate lines on so many palms? Can we entice with words so many worlds? In an era when text has become a verb can we truly reconstruct their unspoken language? You have to read Revived in order to find the answers I have spent most of my life trying to read these women. Trying to decipher their script. Trying to understand flickerings of anxiety, the placidity of satisfaction, the exhilarations and their furtive gropings for supporting dimensions. I am still reading a primer. But the promise of solving the enigma makes me turn page after page. And I hope I never come to the end. I hope there will always be a sequel and another and another. And when the eyesight goes… thank God for Braille! Look at the pantheon…

Rehana Saigol Chunni… Rehana Saigol, who I've publicly written love letters to. A hostess who makes you feel that you are the guest of honour at every one of her delightful dos. Muse, mother, meticulous artist who seduces life out of dead metals and makes stones spout poetry. Andy loves you. Even if he is sometimes a bounder and a cad. Samina Ibrahim Samina... You are my true heroine. A journalist with a conscience and an aesthete who defied convention. The fashion world would stumble on the runway if you had not shown them how to walk, how to pout, how to pirouette, and how to hold that pose. Your words helped us understand the meaning of design and the intricacy of innovation.

Bunto Kazmi Bunto … You taught us that beauty must be dressed in regal hues. You did not let us exile our past. You kept us enraptured by your flights of fancy that were securely moored to a time where craft oft proclaimed the woman. Thank you for giving us pride and not letting us descend into collective amnesia. Maheen Maheen… You still make my knees go funny. And it's not my age believe me. Everytime we meet, it's like 'Yesterday Once More', without the disasters. You are my constantly evolving icon. You glide through our psyche with your magic – setting trends, dismantling clichés and overpowering us with your startling simplicity of design. Keep breathing life into our lives. You designed my wife's wedding jora, what else should I say?

Rooha Ghaznavi Rooha… You made our women so beautiful… sculpting them through your lens, colouring their shifting moods with light and shade. You painted your questions on canvas and left us groping for answers. You disappeared into a tapestry of calligraphic signs. We listen enraptured to your echoes, waiting for you to emerge from the caves of meditation with a new message. Question marks are fluid, they are the skeptic's staff. Nilofer Shahid Nilofer… She tempts and tantalizes with sheer audacity and panache. Khayyam and Gibran would approve. There is something in the way Nilofer weaves magic that have made her a bride's dream and a bridegroom's fantasy. Design alchemist par excellence, you have done us proud.

Frieha Altaf Frieha… How to describe this mercurial miss? I have seen her passion glow and glow and remain unquenched. I have listened in at her inner tears. I have eavesdropped on her ecstatic moments. Give her a dream and she will follow it, enamour it, entice it and then give it back to you in a tangible form. To touch. To savour. To feel. To experience. You broke out of the stark wall and proved that it was only gossamer and silk, if you have the will. My elusive and yet inevitable Frieha – with you fashion will never go out of style. Faiza Samee Faiza… Fabric becomes articulate in her hands. It speaks. It promises. It tells us stories. She paints silhouettes with her imaginative palette. Watch heads turn every time we hear 'Here Comes The Bride' on shehnai. It's Faiza's jora that caresses our eyes and our souls.

Mehvash Amin Mehvash… I'm afraid I know only of you but as a young poet whose words will still reverberate, who caused ripples, concentric ripples, in our adolescent minds. Words are the currency of emotion. Please use them to provoke, to soothe, to describe your inner journey. Nabila Nabila… There is a peace that has nestled in a turbulent being – you look within us. Reach out and find that elusive, intrinsic beauty that lies often crumpled, under the weight of no esteem – you are Merlin with a feminine touch. Creator, you have astonished us with your unexpected flourishes. I wish you could see the blush form in eyes that behold their image in a mirror after you have rescued them from their old selves.

Shahnaz Ismail Shahnaz… You are the curator of our artistic presence. You have jolted us always with your understanding of craft. Tranquility spreads over fabrics that you choose to inspire. My dear friend from Mayo Gardens, you are the inspiration of a generation that realized that art travels from the Indus Valley to today. Sonya Battla Sonya… You showcase what could be in this beautiful country. Less is so much more. We can only stand and stare in wonder at the fluidity of your designs. You seem to know our moods, our fluctuating mind shifts so effortlessly. Your pinnacle will come and then you will reach higher. The sky is never the limit. It is just another space to conquer and more beyond – into new frontiers of vision.

Fareshteh Aslam And finally to my rock Fareshteh… You glide with so much grace that I forget that you are walking on terra firma. You bring us so much serenity, so much tranquility – you soothe the turbulence that tosses and turns within us. And yet with that pen of yours you are fierce. You have made eleven men in white flannels quiver with your writings on match fixing. How many women go through trauma as you plan the next Lux Style Awards, I shudder to think. There is one match you fixed to my continuing delight – our marriage. And hey, we both won. Thanks for bearing with me and thank you all wonderful women. I love your eyes, I love your lips, I love your smile. I love your words but most of all I love your feet… because they walked towards me. Keep morphing… keep the mystery… keep us guessing… Thank you.