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instepprofile Islamabad's spin doctor Rezz Aly Shah gives a candid lowdown on the evolving world of fashion and glamour in the capital city and what role he has played in its very gradual growth By Maria Tirmizi

Public entertainment in the capital city is starting to follow the pattern of this season's rainfall: it comes after long intermittent spells, and is over before you could even enjoy some reprieve from the heat. Many have lamented that the city has lost its essence following certain events. But what exactly was that essence, no one has precisely put its finger on. Fashion is picking up but on such a snail's pace that it is hardly a significant part of the equation here. Only one fashion designer hailing from Islamabad is given any relevance outside the city and not more than a handful of others are trying to grope in a bit of limelight for themselves.

There are no cinemas in Islamabad and shopping is a fraction of the experience it is in Karachi or Lahore. A drawing room culture ensures that most events - sporadic fashion shows here, a shop launch there - remain "invites only".

Going out for some fun for the general public is then relegated to eating out, going for a drive or waiting for some ticket-accessible concert or play to finally hit town. Filling the void and capitalizing on the increasing trend of fine dining, new restaurants of different cuisines are springing up everyday, making people feed on the contrived notion that the only form of entertainment is going to a restaurant! On a positive note, a youth scene is brewing underneath it all - with musicians, thespians, amateur filmmakers and fresh fashion graduates doing their bit as much as they can. Where does event planning fit into all this in Islamabad? Has it become limited to grand weddings and one or two fashion shows a year? How can event planners positively contribute to reducing the gap between the talented and their platform? Or does event managing serve the interests of the high and mighty alone?

To find answers to these questions, Instep caught up with Islamabad based fashion choreographer/event planner Rezz Aly Shah. Switching off two cell phones and ordering a waist-friendly snack of brown bread while explaining that even water has the tendency to make him fat, he declares, "I don't mean to put myself up on a high pedestal, but I have chipped in quite a bit for Isloo." Rezz Aly Shah, at the age of 29, has organized a long list of events in and out of the city in the past seven years since he formed his company Rezz Events. Educating on the kind of events that normally take place in the city, he lists them: a launch event of a company or a product, a fashion designer launch event, a premises launch event, a new collection of a designer collection show or a Gala night- annual dinner of a multinational or a corporate giant. "When we are asked to give a presentation, we recommend a fashion show as part of the entertainment. I don't do ticketed events at all. All my events have been invites only!" he informs happily. And why is that? "Because Islamabad has always had an invitation culture. 99 per cent events are corporate events. I prefer invitations because otherwise getting an NOC is a problem and there is so much red tapism. And fashion is not very masses-friendly as it is. Pakistani culture isn't such that a female model can walk easily on the ramp in front of the public without being hassled," he explains. Rezz has spent most of his life in Islamabad, and bits of it in Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar. "I would call my family intellectually conservative," he says of his background. "My parents were strict because we have a very old family background. We had a 20 canal house in Lahore; it used to be a very popular residence so I'm from a very pampered and privileged background. "But you wouldn't find any pampered style in my personality," he reconsiders. Emphasizing that his father was a federal secretary and a senior IG Police, it wasn't much of a surprise when he wasn't really happy with Rezz leaning towards modelling at the age of 16, but didn't say no either. Rezz was in Karachi then. Asiatic Advertising was launching Crown Prince TV and looking for a fresh face for its campaign. Careful not to let modelling neglect his studies, Rezz took up the offer and kept modelling on and off after that, including shoots for Al-Karam and Deepak Parwani. He also managed to obtain an LLB degree from Punjab Law College and an MBA from Punjab University. Once he had settled back in Islamabad, Rezz tried breaking into the fashion scene with a very close childhood friend of his, event planner Asimyar Tiwana. They formed RAY- R for Rezz and AY for Asimyar, with Asimyar designing clothes and Rezz doing the modelling. "I would say that we USED to be very close friends. Not anymore. RAY lasted for only a few months; we only did one or two shows. I felt I was being sidelined a lot so I decided to branch out and set up Rezz Events in 2000. Asimyar is doing well in his own area now and I'm going well in mine. I wish things hadn't happened the way they did, but I wish him well. I don't hate anyone. Whenever someone hurts me, I don't pull a trigger. I just take a few steps back because I believe in giving out positive energy. Rezz Event's first show was for Stone Cache Jewel House, which he says gave him the push and opened many doors for him. Since then, the list of 'Rezz Events' is long, including restaurant launches, charity balls for NGOs and embassies, fashion shows for designers like Sobia Nazir, Nickie Nina, Pak-French designer Bhatti, Maria B, Maheen Khan and Sadia Mirza. Why hasn't he ventured into so many new promising areas that would project the youth here? "Well, I would love to do things for them if they contact me. For example, I would've liked to launch Omar Khan's Zibahkhana. I also remain involved in projecting fresh graduates of Iqra. I organized a fashion show in Bahria University. I'm flexible in that regard. "Islamabad is a very tough market. My dad was a senior bureaucrat, so I already knew 90 percent of people who mattered in the city when I started my company. But it is still hard getting a single penny from people. "Let me also tell this to all my friends and clients' that I am an Isloo based fashion choreographer/ event planner but that doesn't make my work restricted to the ICT. I live in Isloo but I do a lot of work in Lahore too as its convenient for me to drive there and back without leaving my mom alone, who is my utmost responsibility in my life." What does he feel about the changing emotional aura of the city following the crises that it went through and how has it affected him? He ponders and replies, "Isloo is most certainly going through a tough time. But so is the whole country. Isloo has more security due to all the reasons we all know but as far as events are concerned, I just did choreography and model coordination for the Independence day show at the Presidency." Talking about the glitz and glamour of show business, with cameras flashing and happy smiles pasted on every face, are there any daggers being poked in his back? The fashion choreographer offers Instep many interesting insights on what happens behind the scenes. "You meet all sorts of dubious people," he settles back comfortably in his chair to narrate the stories. "There have been times when I'd be sitting at a hospital to meet a relative or with my family and I'd get a call asking me how much I would charge for a 'mujra'. "Once this fashion designer from Lahore called me up in the middle of the night, calling me "sweetie" and asking me if I'd do a show for her. I was appalled at the unprofessional attitude and the timing of the call. I pretended I'm someone else and replied with a simple 'Rezz amreeka gaya hua hay' (he's gone to America). "Then there was this international airline which wanted an event organized by me. One of the guys from the airline said to me 'event to aap se karwa lain gay but what about the after party?' He basically wanted some under-table deal. I don't know why many think that people in my line of profession have some sort of a shady personality. I would rather decline a show than do something immoral." It must be said that even though Rezz may not be jumping up in joy at under-the-table deals, other event managers in Islamabad have been notoriously been doing so. And so its natural that shady offers follow him too. And about the backstabbing, Rezz says that a lot of people who claimed to be his friends have used him for some odd reason - even measly reasons like arranging parties. "I was doing a show once and a model pretended to be my friend. Later, she gave explicit closed door details of my shows to my rivals. There are so many negative people in this profession that it is best to not get too close to a lot of people. That is why I have very few close friends." He emphasizes that he's a Cancerian and gets hurt very easily. He's never been able to quite figure out why people don't warm up to him that easily. To explain what he means, he narrates the story of a guy who visited him in Islamabad once. "I was so hospitable to him, made him stay in my own house and when he went back, he bitched about me, my house, my looks, my designer clothes. If I wear designer sunglasses or clothes, it's because I've always been like that! I've grown up with all this stuff around me" he argues. "I really don't know why people think I'm a snob," he wonders, looking positively baffled. "But I still wish them all the best", he adds with a characteristic sugary smile.