What happens when you combine three women with one passion? An innovative platform to guarantee the longevity of said passion. Zeba, Shezray and Shehrnaz Husain are the women of Ensemble who have taken fashion to great heights in Pakistan.

Zeba Husain started it all while working on the board for the Teacher's Resource Centre. She organized a charity event to bring in the biggest names of fashion from Pakistan and added Indian designers to the mix which resulted in Carnival De Couture. The fashion extravaganza heralded a new age for fashion presentations in a class of its own. Presenting couture collections from Pakistan and India on the same stage was an unprecedented event, establishing Zeba as a name that understood the need of the times. This was before fashion weeks came along and swept us away with foreign buyers, foreign designers and foran, foran stocking. The business of fashion has been set into motion but it doesn't work without the consent of the customers.

Enter Shezray and Shehrnaz Husain - Zeba's daughters. Shezray Husain, the Head of Business and the Chief Financial Officer and Shernaz is the Creative Director - felt the need to incorporate a retail environment into 'Appointment Only' purchasing. While visiting Tarun Tahiliani's multi-designer store, Ensemble, in India Shehrnaz caught on to the idea of creating the same store and was only encouraged by her mom and Tarun. Zeba even asked Tarun if it was okay to use the same name since it captured the essence of what they wanted to do. Zeba calls it, 'a borrowed concept' but how she took that concept and ran with it is entirely credited to her and her daughters. Being a family friend, Tarun happily obliged and so Ensemble Pakistan was born.

A model of success

Ensemble will be celebrating its fifth anniversary this month since it opened in Karachi at 76, Old Clifton and today it has three locations in Pakistan, a salon and it has recently made Dubai its newest home. Other multi-designer stores have been around since before Ensemble yet there has not been one that has captured the appeal of fashion conscious shoppers the way that Ensemble has managed to do and with such ease.

Ensemble managed to rake in Bunto Kazmi for a fashion show for the first time, Shamaeel Ansari made her comeback there, Kamiar Rokni launched his solo label and Adnan Pardesy was introduced to the masses. All within the first year of Ensemble's operation. The fashion shows were just the beginning and Ensemble became the 'it' place for fashion even after it shifted its flagship store to Karachi's new fashion avenue, E Street. Unique presentations were held to showcase designers that started stocking at Ensemble, the international Fashion's Night Out event was held and even Ramazan was celebrated with Suhoor Nights and qawwali evenings throughout the month. When Florence Rizvi's son Sikander opened up the hotspot Xander's Café on the premises, Ensemble was bulging at the seams with people. 

The Husain women have found success after success only through constant hard work and the knowledge of how fashion designers operate. They have brought the Ritu Kumar franchise to Pakistan and stock Sabyasachi Mukherjee, who famously designs for many Bollywood starlets and is a favourite of Vidya Balan. The glamour of fashion and Indian designers and celebrities is fun but only when it contributes to the bigger picture towards a sustainable goal is when fashion works to the benefit those involved. While Zeba has the resources to bring in designers with her social clout it's only a savvy business model that keeps the business running and the clients coming back.

Since Ensemble opened its doors five years ago, the world of fashion in Pakistan shifted from bridals to big business. Retail has worked well and only because retailers and designers are respecting the others contribution to fashion. Shehrnaz explains, “It even took designers a couple of years to realize how big a game retail can be. Initially, designers were saying, 'Yeah retail is there to one side but bridals are where the real money is.' After bridal the trends shifted to lawns but personally I think the lawn bubble is kind of bursting now. Designers today are becoming very retail and ready-to-wear savvy and they want to do that low cost outfit and they want to be at different stores, they want their presence there. I feel within a store, in terms of expectations and quality standards, be it the interiors of a store down to the well-trained staff and having an automated system is all very important. All this stuff wasn't there five years ago. Now you even need a publicist. The industry has grown a lot.”

Three - In - One

Zeba is a glowing beacon of pride in a draped yellow Shehrnaz by Ensemble outfit at the Ensemble Dubai launch. She stands tall and proud as customers, clients, journalists, friends and family are a blur of activity in the new Dubai store in the affluent neighbourhood on Al Wasl Road. She is calm and cool with a beaming smile from ear-to-ear when she tells Instep on Sunday that she owes much to her daughters for taking the Ensemble name to great heights, “We've come so far in the past five years and it's a big achievement which would not have been possible without my two daughters, because my vision is very limited. I don't have any business sense in me. Ensemble is where it is today only because of Shezray's business sense and Shehrnaz's creative sense.”

The Husain women work together as well as they do separately within their defined boundaries. While the three women are taking care of different ends of the business which works to their advantage since their individual expertise are so varied, yet Zeba, Shezray and Shehrnaz have found common ground within their business.

Shezray being the financial head of Ensemble brings in her knowledge of investment banking but while her line of work may have changed and she has the support of her family it was a tough road for the girl who likes to play hard. “The idea of Ensemble we worked on together, initially I was not involved full-time, I was working as an investment banker first in London then in Karachi, then made a switch to full-time Ensemble with these expectations that I'll create systems and then a year later disappear to full-time grad school. That didn't happen and the work sinks you into it. It's been great, it's been interesting. We honestly didn't realize we would come so far. It's been a great journey, it's been frustrating at times and rewarding at others. We're still wondering whether we'll ever be billionaires with it. I think we enjoy our work and that's been the main thing.”
The youngest Husain, Shehrnaz, always had a love of fashion that has manifested itself perfectly in Ensemble and the in-house label Shehrnaz By Ensemble. Shehrnaz is the epitome of being the youngest in the family, she's always wearing a big smile and exudes energy but when it comes down to talking about her work she lets you know that she's all business. Shehrnaz interned at Instep and Catwalk and saw the dearth in the market for a platform of luxury brands when she was in India and visited stores like Kimaya. “While I was studying Marketing and Advertising in London and my final year was at London College of Fashion I used to hold exhibitions which was like a market survey, I would get stuff from India and local stuff and put it all together and hold exhibitions in Pakistan. I held three exhibitions in the first year and the response was really great. After I graduated then I started Ensemble with my mom.

“I was in London and I used to love going to Selfridges every single day and reading all the fashion magazines. When I moved back to Pakistan, I was thinking, 'Is this it?' It wasn't very exciting at that point. When we did the first multi-designer Ensemble shows there was no fashion week and people used to get very excited about those shows because there was something different. When fashion weeks started we thought we wouldn't do shows anymore because it's already being done. Likewise in retail, right now there is a lot of pressure to be professional because there is a lot more competition.”

Same Game, New Rules

High fashion usually means high prices but this is another obstacle that Ensemble has tackled deftly. The multi-designer store is very price conscious and feels that if they can't give their clients a better price or at least the same price than there is no point in their venture. Even Ensemble Dubai, with its costs of transporting goods to an outside location, manages to stay price efficient. It would be cheaper for customers looking for ethnic wear to travel to their home country and buy their clothes their but Ensemble has kept the same prices for its designer wear. 

Taking a closer look at the Ensemble venture and one of their biggest successes has to be One by Ensemble. The retail store is situated within Dolmen City Mall, Clifton that also houses Debenham's, Mango, Monsoon, Next, Nine West, Khaadi, Sheep and Generation.

To bring designer wear into the high street mix took some more of the signature Husain innovation. Shehrnaz shares the concept behind the venture, “My final year thesis was on the ‘Democratization of Fashion’ which kind of gave birth to One By Ensemble all these years later. It was about how all the luxury brands in the UK were coming on to the high street with collaborations with H&M and TopShop and what sort of impact they have. The owners of Dolmen Mall asked us to open a store there but we weren't sure about how we would incorporate designer wear into a mall environment.” Luckily they got designers on board to do clothes for under 10,000 rupees, in mostly cotton but feature the designers signature looks in affordable prêt wear pieces.

Ensemble racks are filled with the who's-who of fashion but it can't be said that they are averse to stocking new designers. Shehrnaz relates a tale of how she chanced upon a new label, “We were sent a package to the store from Peshawar that we were not expecting. The office called me and I told them that I was not expecting anything. I went to the store and called my mother and asked her if she was and she asked me where it was from. I told her it was from Peshawar and she got worked up about it and told me to get it out of the store and away from everyone because she thought it was a bomb!”

After the situation was handled it was discovered that the box had been sent by the brand Lorelai based in Peshawar. “They hadn't even called us or anything and they just sent their clothes,” shares Shehrnaz. They've since been stocking the brand since they liked the pieces, interestingly enough they still haven't met the people behind the brand but it happens to be doing very well at Ensemble.

­The world is moving at sonic speed. So is fashion in Pakistan. Pioneers may come and go. It is those who can sufficiently grow and withstand the onslaught of the fast charging changes that become symbols of success. Zeba, Shezray and Shehrnaz Husain have taken the reins of fashion retail into their hands unbeknownst to them. It wasn't about the money, the fame or the glamour of fashion. It's always been about fashion benefiting designers, retailers but mostly you, the consumers.

Photo credits:
Salon Images:  Adeela Badshah,
Ensemble Lahore store Images:Faisal Farooqi of Dragonfly
Ensemble: Flagship Store
Karachi Kashif-u-din for