Fashion Pakistan Week is over, Lahore Fashion Week is on its way.
The fashion week has become the new craze in the fashion industry.
The good part is that designers have started talking and thinking
business. The bad news is that the tale of two cities continues,
with Karachi and Lahore extending olive branches to each other but
not managing (as yet) to come to a logical conclusion. Meanwhile,
one has also heard rumblings of triumph in the design community:
"Who needs the Lux Style Awards now?” some have exclaimed
triumphantly. As if award shows and fashion weeks are competition…
it's apples and oranges people.
The excitement of fashion week is heady brew indeed if you happen
to be a designer. Okay, so there weren't any foreign buyers and
local buyers are a rare species (The Designers, Ensemble, Labels,
PFDC's Boulevard and Melange in Islamabad are the only stores that
spring to mind) but there was a live audience and foreign journalists
could be spotted in the crowd everyday. The week made waves in local
newspapers and magazines and got international coverage as an act
of rebellion against the Taliban. That was hardly a valid observation;
it wasn't as if fashion week happened in Peshawar or even Empress
Market. Anyhow, the Taliban are Pakistan's unique selling point
and Fashion Pakistan Week ran with it. It was a great first start
but there's work to be done, serious work like the creation of buyers
locally, the tapping of international buyers (especially from India
and UAE), hooking the designers who've shown up with them, getting
orders in, getting local media on board to induce buying and create
awareness and the mammoth task of getting international media to
cover our fashion like fashion is supposed to be covered - not a
rebel yell in the face of the Taliban.
A fashion week is a lot of hard work, which is why one doesn't see
CEOs of fashion councils moonlighting
as models for designers anywhere in the world. They are taking care
of the backend, orchestrating the business activity that is the
essence of fashion week. In Pakistan they take to the runway because
a designer has asked them to, but then one can't blame them, all
over the world, CEOs don't work gratis either. Fashion Pakistan
Week was a great example of people from an industry coming together
to work, out of a love for fashion, to put back into the industry.
But the danger with a group of friends coming together to pull off
an activity for love alone is that it's fraught with danger. Friendships
tend to sour far quicker than business deals and wheeling and dealing
is what a real fashion week is all about. Which buyer picked up
which designer for which store? Who got a contract with which company?
And in Pakistan, hopefully, who is signing up with which textile
mill to come up with a line of ready to wear clothes as opposed
to designer lawn.
These are the changes fashion week needs to instigate eventually.
And before getting buyers in, they also need to ensure that designers
showing have a concept of international sizing that not even a handful
do. However, it seems that both councils are more interested in
putting up their own respective fashion weeks.
We've already seen Fashion Pakistan Week and Lahore Fashion Week
is round the corner. If both councils put up two fashion weeks each
a year, we will have four of them annually in Pakistan. And my only
concern is that in the energy that it requires to put them up, the
back end work which is so crucial will be left behind. They will
compete with each other for the same buyers and international media
who will be hard pressed to attend one or the other. And realistically
speaking, unless Karachi and Lahore unite for one fashion week,
there aren't enough dependable designers in the country to meet
the requirements of international buyers if they are to come. Without
the necessary business activity, fashion will remain what it is
in Pakistan, evening entertainment catering to a few handful of
socialites who clap in the audience and order dresses right after
the show.
Entertainment through and through is what the Lux Style Awards have
historically provided and it was sad to see them reduced to a photo
call this year. They have been a fantastic platform for talent of
all kinds. Dealing with film, music, fashion and television they've
given new talent a chance to get noticed. And being the style awards,
they have been heavy on fashion content. They've recognized a Maheen
Karim and a Sonya Battla, they've boosted Rabia Butt. It hasn't
always gone down well, it doesn't when there are winners and losers
subject to decision of a fashion jury, but fashion has to thank
them for one thing, they are perhaps the only platform to put fashion
on the national radar. That is a big thing for an activity that
is elitist by nature. It creates awareness, which leads to demand
and which designers can use to tap the local market to further business
in the country.
This exposure national television provides is why the top designers
of the world are ready to dress Hollywood stars for the Oscars.
Valentino will not attend but the fact that Julia Roberts won the
Oscar wearing his dress helps his business. Stars red carpet choices
also reflect the deals they've struck with fashion houses. Nicole
Kidman wore Chanel for all the years that she was the face of the
brand. It was probably written in her contract with the fashion
house. Anna Wintour, that High Priestess of all things in vogue
recognized this phenomenon years ago when she decided that her magazine
would feature a celebrity and not a model on a cover years ago.
It boosts sales. This is the synergy that fashion needs to establish
with celebrity.
We witness the same phenomenon here, but few designers tap into
it. The high fashion event this year in Karachi, the Pond's Ensemble
show when televised showed ratings of 0.04 (out of 1, which is the
highest) for the fashion segment. The live performance of Atif Aslam
at the end of the show saw ratings shoot up to 0.76. This is the
power of real celebrity. Fashion can ride on its back, but cannot
replace it.
Perhaps the most exciting idea I heard at the Lux Style Awards photo
call was that Shaan is incorporating the LSAs into his next film
in which he will star with Juggan Kazim. He has both Nabila and
Tariq Amin playing themselves, amongst others. According to Shaan,
fashion has really taken off and people want to see what happens
behind the scenes. Of course, the film will feature a protagonist
who has a dream, follows it and wins an award in the end. This is
the synergy that that the LSAs help create; indeed, any platform
that brings people together does that.
Such platforms are the need of the day. Not only do we need a two
fashion weeks a year (one for each season done jointly by both councils),
we also need the LSAs, the Carnival De Couture, dedicated music
awards shows, the World Performing Arts Festival, the Karafilm Festival,
Shanaakht to get a roster of events going in Pakistan and more should
be added on.
Why choose between apples and oranges when you can have both? And
throw in some lychees too.
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