In a country where there was once no fashion, Teejay came, saw and conquered. Think back to Pakistani fashion’s heydays and the first name that comes to mind is Teejays. A fashion revolutionary in the true sense of the word, Tanveer Jamshed - or Teejay, as he is popularly known - is the man who introduced fashion to Pakistan, popularized the boutique culture and brought forth the idea of advertising through television dramas and regular fashion spreads. With no local model to aspire to, Teejay set about doing things the international way. He adroitly intertwined his unique, original fashions with a sharp knack for business, keeping his stores well-stocked and the clothes affordable. For men, he made the shalwar kameez savvy, for women, he brought in polka dots, billowy sleeves, buttons and new shapes. Back then, he was a true fashion icon. Today, he is lauded as a pioneer, a marketing genius, Pakistan’s first ground-breaking designer. His daughter, designer Feeha Jamshed, sums things up in a nutshell by simply calling him a ‘rock star’.“When I was three I would sit in my father’s office and I would tell everybody that I was going to be just like Teejay when I grew up,” Feeha recalls, calling her father ‘Teejay’, like she always has. “It wasn’t the designing aspect that attracted me. It was the respect and adulation that he would get from people. Everybody, from celebrities to politicians, would come to his office. I remember sitting in General Zia-ul-Haq’s lap when he would come over for his sherwanis. And everywhere I went, I was known as ‘Teejay’s daughter’. All I wanted to do was grow up to be just like my father.”

Many years later, a talented designer in her own right, Feeha’s still enamored by her father. Before I come to meet the father-daughter duo, she tells me over the phone, ““He just knows so much. He is like an institution on fashion.” Her words ring true as we sit down for numerous cups of tea and an interview that lasts for hours. Teejay holds court in our conversation while Feeha and I listen enraptured, envisioning the Karachi of his college days, when fashion existed for a select heterogeneous ‘party’ crowd of Muslims, Christians and Parsis and then yo-yoing back to compare it with the burgeoning fashion industry of today. At 67, Teejay still has the aura of a bona fide fashion guru, complete with swanky sunglasses, fierce opinions and a smoking habit that he just can’t quit despite his health. He may have long retired from the fashion scene, but he understands the demographics of fashion much better than most popular designers do today. “One needs to be a good designer, of course, but it is also important to understand the economics of selling,” he says, summarizing the way he ran his huge business for many years.

The business of fashion, Teejay’s way and who would know this better than Teejay? A magazine rack standing next to his office door heaves with publications carrying Teejays fashion shoots from the brand’s halcyon days. Back when MAG was one of the few magazines in the market, a Teejays fashion centerfold appeared in every issue for four consecutive years. This was no easy feat especially since fashion photography didn’t exist in Pakistan back then. Each aspect of the process had to be personally overseen by Teejay, from guiding the photographers to picking the models, choosing the setting and the styling.

The brand came even more in the public eye - and in a big way - when Teejay began creating wardrobes for popular drama serials. Who can forget Marina Khan and Shehnaz Sheikh, in Hasina Moin’s infamous Tanhaiyaan, enacting an inseparable pair of sisters, always stylishly dressed in Teejays? Although Tanhaiyaan is probably the most famous, there were actually 147 plays for which Teejay designed wardrobes. All this advertising - and effort - was followed up by the same outfits being available at Teejays outlets within a week.

“Fashion today, for many designers, has deteriorated to becoming a mere show of egos and socializing rather than a business,” Teejay criticizes. “Designers need to understand that there is no point to just putting a design on the ramp or in a magazine. With Teejays, I advertised incessantly but I also made sure that the outfits were readily available at my outlet, in good quantities.”

Teejays’ business began with a single outlet in Karachi’s Tariq Road that would draw customers in because of its unconventional black exterior. “People would first come to the boutique out of curiosity but then they would come again because they liked the designs and could afford the prices,” remembers Teejay. “I planned out the shop’s interior myself since there was no concept of boutiques back then.”

Later, as Teejays became more popular, further branches were opened. At one time, the brand was available in 14 branches in different parts of Pakistan as well as shops in Paris and the U.A.E. and a franchise in London. However, even when the brand was at its zenith, Teejays’ clothes were never exorbitant. “We never had to have any sales because people could easily buy the clothes at their original prices,” recalls Teejay. “I’ve designed wardrobes for politicians, dignitaries and celebrities; I’ve traveled the world and partied in the most elite circles; I’ve been credited for revolutionizing the shalwar kameez and making it an ‘awami’ dress. And yet, I’ve never tried to charge very high prices or sell something unoriginal. Pakistan has given so much to me and I have always believed in giving back by being true to my work.”

To the contrary, he feels that today’s designers are out to swindle the Pakistani masses. “Today’s fashion is too expensive for the masses and only serves to accentuate the economic gap. Designers don’t realize that they have a social responsibility towards their country. They pick styles right off the runways of Milan and India, pass them off as their own and charge astronomical prices for them.”

There are only a few present designers that Teejay approves of. He praises Amir Adnan for his business acumen and his daughter Feeha for her originality. “Feeha is different because she produces original designs and doesn’t price them high. Now, if only she’d learn how to translate her fashion sense into business, she’d be well on her way to carrying Teejays the brand to new heights.”

Feeha’s fashion forays

For the time being, though, Feeha remains one of the many designers whose clothes are applauded at fashion weeks but usually don’t make it to the Teejays stores. There is no doubt that she has inherited her father’s flair for fashion. Like him, she prefers to work in cotton, nipping, tucking and draping the sensible fabric to produce modernized gharara palazzo pants or avant-garde janitor jumpsuits. Even when she designs the simplest clothes - as she did for Mahirah Khan’s character in the hit drama Humsafar - she does them with a finesse that is remarkable. But like many of her fashion week hits, her plans for selling Humsafar-inspired clothes at Teejays outlets haven’t yet transpired into actual stock. Apparently, she is still in discussion with the drama’s producers and the clothes may or may not eventually find their way to Teejays stores. While her reasons may be valid, this is again one of the times when Feeha has buyers vying for her designs only to be disappointed by insufficient stock at the Teejays boutiques.

I comment that this is hardly the way her father operated in his day. Feejay simply shrugs. “For a long time, my father didn’t provide me with a budget to mass-produce my designs and place them in the stores. There may have been a demand for my designs but I didn’t have the finances to replicate them. I would only stock a few clothes and those would sell out very quickly. This was Teejay’s way of making sure I learnt how to handle the business.”

Impressing a father who is a fashion legend isn’t easy and Feeha has had to work hard to gain Teejay’s trust. “People tell me that I have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth and it makes me laugh,” she remarks. “My father loves me but he also sets high standards for me. The newspapers may have been commending my work from the day of my debut show but for me, the biggest achievement has been to earn my father’s approval!”

Feeha joined the family business five years ago when Teejay had a heart attack. Having just completed her first year in PIFD Lahore, she rushed back home and, along with her brother Ali who oversees the administration, became part of Teejays. “Our first priority back then, and even now, is to remain consistent with our menswear collections. These are the clothes that are our main source of revenue. On the side, I have kept on designing my womenswear.”

And while her wonderfully wearable womenswear has almost always won accolades from critics, all Feeha initially got from her father was a nod! “I felt Teejay somewhat acknowledge my work when I won the Lux Style Award for Best Emerging Talent in 2010,” she says. “I came home and showed him the award and, in his roundabout way of showing approval, he told me that I could put it on his desk! Then, when the Creative Director of Pret-a-Porter Paris, Alexandra Senes, visited Pakistan, she commented in an interview that I was the only designer that she could see selling well in Paris without altering any of my designs. That’s when Teejay told me I was doing well. Usually, though, he is still very careful with his praise. Recently, when my creation was worn by the associate producer of Saving Face, Fazeelat Aslam, on the Oscar red carpet, all Teejay did was incline his head at the news! I know he only does this because he wants me to work to the best of my capabilities but sometimes it’s difficult!”

“Now, finally, he has told me that I can look into expanding my womenswear line,” reveals Feeha. “We’re presently deliberating over opening a new outlet. I am also traveling shortly to Lahore and Islamabad and considering re-opening our shops there.”

While making Feeha bide her time must have probably meant losing out on profitable womenswear sales, this is Teejay’s way of tackling the tricky business of raising his children. “Parents have to tread carefully with their children and this has been my way of making Feeha realize her capabilities,” he says. “I always knew that, from my five children, she would be the one to follow in my footsteps. Still, I allowed her to explore different career options although I did groan inwardly when she took to bridal designing in her teenage years! When out of her own choice she decided to turn to ready-to-wear, I had to make sure that she would evolve on the basis of her own talent. I didn’t want her to enter the industry and bask in Teejay’s past glory. I have seen too many designers, including some of Feeha’s friends, enter the industry with a lot of hype and then dwindle into nonexistence. I could foresee the pitfalls that she could have fallen in to. I was afraid that she may try to emulate my designs and just get lost in my shadow. I am so happy that she hasn’t.”

Family first

Although he measures his words carefully, Teejay’s pride in his daughter shines through. He counters his praise almost immediately by light disapproval. “But now that I’ve allowed you to develop your designs, you have to listen to what I say,” he warns Feeha. “You have to learn how to go about the business of fashion, how to produce 400 different designs, replicate them into various sizes and stock them in your store. I won’t have you giving away your styles to your friends the way you have been doing.”

This censure immediately has Feeha protesting that she hasn’t given away her designs to which her father begins to recount the number of times Feeha’s ‘friends’ have worn Teejays creations to red carpet events and never returned the clothes. Even while they squabble, she tucks a cushion behind her father’s back and a footstool under his feet. Teejay and Feejay see-saw between hugs to arguments to long lectures on how she needs to begin working on her business sense. They listen to each other but they also shrug off each other’s criticisms easily, the way all fathers and daughters can do.

Aside from guiding his daughter, Teejay also has ambitious plans to shake up the fashion industry. Some five odd years ago, in another Instep on Sunday cover story, he outlined his plans for a television show, titled 999 - where designers would compete to produce clothes within a minimal budget. The title depicted the general idea behind the show, that fashion could be affordable enough to cost as little as Rs 999. Now, given that his health allows it -he suffers from the ailments that are usually part and parcel of old age, diabetes and coronary problems - he envisions this competition to take place on the ramp instead, in the midst of a black-tie exclusive dinner.

But even if his plans don’t formulate, Teejay can be happy that his legacy is being carried on by his daughter. Feeha works primarily with cotton and keeps her prices low. Her design aesthetics are also a lot like her father’s. Many years ago, Teejay added color and simple innovations like front pockets to the shalwar kameez and overnight, the national dress was no longer confined to the lower classes. It became a dress for every Pakistani, an awami dress. Feeha, by staying away from the age-old route of embroidery and embellishments has started off a sartorial revolution of her own. “It’s far too easy to make an outfit stand out with the help of embroideries,” explains Feeha. “Working just with cotton challenges me as a designer. There was a time when I was delving into bridal design but I soon realized that cotton was my forte. Without my father telling me to do so, I found myself making the same choices he had made years ago. I guess it runs in my genes!” she laughs.

For Feeha, there’s no better benchmark to aspire to than her father. With years of accolades and awards, including the illustrious Sitara-e-Imtiaz, to his credit, Teejay and his family have a lot to be proud of. But, as it is in life, they’ve also had their share of trials. There’s a lot that this family has faced: the shutdown of the Teejays’ international branches as export declined following the nuclear blast in the late ‘90’s, dwindling finances as the brand became less popular, the unprecedented death of Feeha’s sister last year and Teejay’s heart problems.

“We have had our tragedies and some of them have left us very sad. Still, we’ve emerged from them as a strong, close-knit family. There’s nothing that’s more important to me than my parents. I’ll do anything they say because I know that they’ll always want what’s best for me,” says Feeha.

It can’t be easy to always put family first but that’s how this clan has always operated. Teejays currently has Feeha at the designing helm, her brother Ali looking after the administration while their father supervises. To this date, a collection can’t make it to the shops unless it gets Teejay’s stamp of approval. “I don’t consider old-age an impediment. My mind is fresh and I still know exactly the kind of quality products I want to send to my store,” he says. “Even at this age, I feel the urge to shake things up, create a revolution. I may not have much time but there’s still so much that I have to do.” With Feeha by his side, Teejay may just be able to achieve all that he wants. That’s what these two are all about: father and daughter, fashion revolutionaries, maestro and protégé, Teejay and Feejay.

Shoot Credits:
Photography: Tapu Javeri
Hair: Nida Khan @ Tariq Amin
Make-up: Anam Farooq @ Tariq Amin