As it expands to encompass a greater whole, creatively it’s a sad sad time for fashion. Apart from the frenetic, adrenaline inducing rush of fashion weeks what one is left with are a plethora of fashion shows that do on a small scale what fashion weeks do on a grand scale. And now that we have real honest to goodness fashion weeks, the smaller hour or two long shows have lost their luster, becoming a mindless exercise that seems to do nothing more than generating little newsbytes. Designers repeat their collections for them or present haphazardly thrown together lines because they “can’t say no to friends”. Awful predicament – but really, no true professional would never find themselves in it. If you have nothing new to show, say “NO”. It’s really that simple.
 And please, can we not have red carpets for shop openings, especially when the shops are miniscule and the red carpet is a rough shod one on some uneven street in a commercial area in Defence? Okay, the red carpet generates sound bytes for the telly but really, it’s for events like award shows where people are dressed up to the nines, not when they are turning up in jeans and a t-shirts. And do we really need red carpets at lawn exhibitions? Have a designated area for television cameras where people can give sound bytes by all means, but don’t call it a red carpet.
In this onslaught of high profile sameness, it is creativity that is being lost. And in this sparse desert of no new ideas yet so much happening, two events one by Kiran Aman and Sonya Battla in Karachi and the other by Nabila and Zain Mustafa in Lahore came down like rain.
Kiran, is a jewellery designer and book publisher and Sonya Battla, designer extraordinaire who also happens to be the brand ambassador for Kiran Fine Jewellery. In a high concept idea, the ladies inspired their invitees to head out to the Planetarium on University Road for a presentation in the Planetarium itself. They had dug into the archives of the Planetarium and put together a unique prelude for their collections. The presentation was titled ‘Symphony of Silence’ that one witnessed laying back on the seats as the heavens moved above and a calm voice spoke of astrology, astronomy and the gateway between our world and the one above. In the adjoining hall, mannequins were dressed in Sonya’s ‘Stellar’ collection that owed the texture and flow and fall of the outfits to galactic phenomena. Kiran’s jewellery collection was titled ‘Meet Your Void’ also inspired by the appearance of the galaxy. She had used her pieces inventively, some as brooches, some and lockets and some suspended in mid air with shadows falling strategically on the mannequins to make a statement.
 One hour and out - no catwalk, no glam red carpet, just a unique, moving experience that was enjoyed most of all by kids, many of whom had never been to the Planetarium before. Far, far better than doing a show in the ball room of some five star. There are too many of those to count.
And on the same day, in Lahore, Nabila and Zain Mustafa joined hands to come up with a fashion presentation for L’Oreal’s summer collection. Titled ‘Summer Fantasy’, it featured live hair and make up that resulted in with picture perfect portraits of L’Oreal’s leading ladies and employed Baloch musician Akhter Channar to ground the Parisian fantasy in Pakistan. There were those who thought the show was mind blowing and others who felt that the two didn’t mesh together. But that is quintessential Nabila and Zain Mustafa. They don’t do pretty and lovely. All their shows have you on the edge of your seat. People love them or hate them and therein lies their success. The worst thing about most shows these days is making the effort to go and end up up wondering why you went in the first place.
The moral of the story is, if you want to do a fashion event, give the audience something more. Use your imagination. Rediscover a venue, give them an experience, make them feel something, anything. The polite applause at the end doesn’t matter. You have to make people say “WOW!” |
