If the first installment of PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week was chaotic
and the second in Karachi was slicker,
finely tuned but seemed toned down, then, the PFDC platform really
took off this time. With 36 designers in three days, with one day
off for the Pakistan versus India semi-final in the middle, it became
the best fashion week Pakistan has witnessed by a long shot. One
saw fashion step up and get focused, one saw what a long way designers
the PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week has created have come, one saw the
hype happening everyday, the buyers, local and international media,
most prominent among them Hilary Alexander of the Telegraph and
that deliciously fashion savvy Paisienne fashion mascot Alexandra
Senes of the the Pret a Porter fame. And perhaps best of all, one
saw how Lahoris owns their fashion week, everyone coming together
and making it work gloriously well in one focused direction. They
are headed the right way, beams full on. It’s a long drive
and they know it.
First of all, the venue they chose in Lahore was drop dead gorgeous
- the Expo in the city is to die for. All glistening glass and steel
and massive space, it is modern architecture at its industrial best.
Driving up to it gave one a sense of “Wow!” and fashion
is so much about the WOW factor. Throw in the fact that fashion
week is a trade event and the venue was simply perfect to showcase
the designers. It was heartening that the hall was packed to capacity
every night with people even standing in the gallery above on the
last day.
It was a fabulous week for fashion and one clearly saw the energy
that drives the members if the Pakistan Fashion Design Council.
Key players in the scenario are all friends who go a long way back.
They studied together at the Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design
and succeeded in creating a fashion industry in Lahore when high
fashion there was restricted to Nilofer Shahid and the Chairperson
of PFDC Sehyr Saigol herself. And now, with this fashion week, a
solid platform with solid sponsors like Unilever and others like
Balmain and Scenstation and a media sponsor like Geo they are set
for flight. Here it must be said that the PFDC is more than a council.
It is very much a business minded entity, looking to bring a feel
of international into Pakistan and take Pakistan to the world. The
PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week is a playing field that enables them to
do it.
Through Alexandra Senes of the Pret a Porter in Paris, the PFDC
will be flying in the chosen designers to
showcase their designs at the Pavilion there. One also remembers
that before this, many years ago, Maheen, Rizwan Beyg and Sonya
Battla also went there but that was a one off. The PFDC is making
it a sustained activity. Senes has been here for all three fashion
weeks and this time round she brought with her a designer from Paris
who held a workshop for the designers, talking to them about what
they need to do. This is the kind of focus and networking that opens
minds and propels designers into the future.
It was great for example to see that Ali Xeeshan has struck a deal
with Crimson, (a company owned by the retailers who run the Portfolio
a multi-brand store in Lahore). So the collection he showed was
Ali Xeeshan for Crimson. It’s the same dynamic as Karl Lagerfeld
for Chanel or Manish Arora for Paco Rabanne except that it is happening
locally. Ali Xeeshan needed the backing and he is very happy. After
his show, sitting on the comfy sofa of the lounge outside he told
Instep that he is a creative guy and does not have the head for
the business side of things. A deal with Crimson suits him just
fine. Ali Raza of Crimson who also runs the Portfolio spoke about
how he thinks this will be beneficial to him. And sure enough with
commercialization, Ali Xeeshan has also swung into making ornate
bridals. They didn’t speak as loudly as his edgy East West
fusion that had Senes and Hilary Alexander sit up and take notice.
However, with the network PFDC has set in place designers can have
the best of both worlds. Fashion is a massive playing field and
different people will grow in different directions.
From the reviews coming out, its been interesting to see who got
noticed by foreign eyes. Sara Shahid with her falir for simplicity,
love of colour and attention to detail got rave reviews across the
board. Shamoon Sultan of Khaadi Khaas wowed them with dresses that
were perfect resort wear in the international scenario.
Feeha Jamshed of Teejays was the designer most liked by Vogue UK.
Hilary Alexander fell in love with Nickie Nina’s block prints,
Akif’s take on ‘Rags to Riches’ and devoted the
longest review to Maheen Kardar’s ‘Joy’ collection
perhaps because it featured separates you could wear in the West,
those embellished “minis and Victorian bloomers” are
items familiar to the West, but the craftsmanship on them isn’t.
Also, on a personal note, Hilary found the the use of mothers and
daughters in to open Maheen’s show refreshing. She liked seeing
real women on the catwalk who weren’t size zero. The other
things she said was “When we come to Pakistan, we don’t
want to see a pale imitation of the West. We want to see designers
referencing local culture and history. That’s part of your
fashion DNA and that’s what you have to show the world.”
However, she did make an exception for Omar Farooq’s Republic
brand and lauded him for ‘mixing sports looks and suiting’
to make ‘slick Westernised menswear’. If you want to
go West, you have to do it right.
As a fashion journalist, it was incredibly heartening to see Hilary
Alexander at work. She doesn’t take notes, she sketched designs
in her noteboke, with arrows to create a reference point for her
reviews. She gets into how clothes are made and embellished. Of
course, in a world that moves very fast, she didn’t review
the last day of fashion week, flying home to London in the morning
and getting busy with her next story, a first look at the designs
featured in the exhibit ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’.
To have Pakistani fashion in that spotlight, amidst the leading
fashion stories of the world was a big, big high. Of course, it
must be mentioned that Hilary Alexander referred to the event as
Pakistan Fashion Week in all her stories whereas the title PFDC
Sunsilk Fashion Week glared at everyone throughout the venue.
Let’s face it, despite the council politics that has plagued
the fashion industry, the massive egos at play, the “we will
come together eventually but we don’t know how to” and
attempts to do it that always seem to fall apart, we are a speck
on the global fashion scenario. Much tom tomming was made about
the Fashion versus Taliban’ angle taken by Fashion Pakistan
under Ayesha Tammy Haq that got the industry a lot of mileage. However,
that phenomenon happened via reporters from the agencies who unnecessarily
dragged the Taliban into fashion because the War on Terror was their
beat. The only bad publicity is no publicity but it was a short
sighted move. When Hilary Alexander was asked if terrorism was a
concern that she would bring into her stories, her response was
“Well, one had to fill out a risk assessment form, but beyond
that why would they be a part of the story?” It’s this
level of specialized fashion journalist that needs to be brought
in to take fashion forward, otherwise fashion is reduced to “oh
look, there are models showing skin in the land of beards and burqas.”
While Fashion Pakistan may have democracy and a voting system, it
is the PFDC that is accomplishing more with a hierarchical system
that is expanding slowly but surely. Apart from Sehyr and the power
she wields, there is Nuscie Jamil, her right hand woman, who was
once a journalist herself and understands what needs to be done
to promote fashion. There is Saad Ali (Maheen Kardar’s husband
and the owner of the Karma operation) is the new CEO of the council,
who is all about numbers and business. There is Kamiar Rokni who
despite the history between them helped out backstage and remined
hands on throughout the week despite not showing a collection. There
is HSY with is perfect spin as the spokesperson and his sense of
showmanship helping Frieha Altaf out immeasurably to bring it all
together. And then there is Altaf herself who produces the show
and works tirelessly to make sure things go according to plan. There
is Unilever that brands the show and gives it a financial backbone
in return. Sehyr Saigol must be commended for her vision in bringing
it all together.
This time round, one saw Amir Adnan, the CEO of Fashion Pakistan
in attendance with his wife Huma Adnan’s enterprise FNKAsia
taking to the stage. There was also Rizwan Beyg who was there with
the designers he mentors - the hugely talented Adnan Pardesy, the
creative and commercial Zaheer Abbas and the zany Fahad Hussayn.
He also helped style FNKAsia’s show backstage. The Fashion
Pakistan platform has not been consistent. To put up a fashion week
anywhere in the world and make it a regular feature, tie ups are
the essence of the business. As someone wisely commented about Sehyr
Saigol’s astute business sense, “industrialist ki biwi
hai, torr jorr samajhti hai.”
Be it roping in Frieha Altaf or the tie up with Unilever and Geo
that brings in the corporate muscle and the media platform in one
powerful swoop, or delegating PR responsibility to Selina Rashid’s
Lotus that has carved a unique place for itself in the business,
using Latitude run by Omat Jamil for international PR, PFDC under
the guidance of Sehr Saigol has made all the right moves to ensure
continuity and stability. Perhaps their best accomplishment has
been putting the industry on an upward learning curve by roping
in the right people. People like Seema Aziz of Bareeze, Azfar Hussain
of Matrix Sourcing and Shoaib Sultan of Stoneage and Crescent Bahuman
bring in invaluable advice. The PFDC is not a one man show. It is
a delicate dance of big guns laying the necessary groundwork to
propel fashion forward.
Next stop for them will hopefully be India. Sehyr Saigol and Nuscie
Jamil are already discussing strategy for it. These begums are not
interested in kitty parties. They are into hardball and they’ve
seen enough of the world to know how to play it.
Well done PFDC! If the last two fashion weeks took the industry
up a notch each time, this one really upped the ante.
Photos by Faisal Farooqui
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