Pakistan Fashion Design Council (PFDC) press conferences are getting better as time goes by. After the rather spectacular one they did in Lahore, announcing their fashion week complete with plasma screens, designers and celebrities in attendance and most importantly, an agenda to boot, the council held the second press conference relating to their fashion week in Karachi. The venue was PFDC’s Karachi branch of their fashion store, the Boulevard in Park Towers.

This one sealed the deal for the upcoming fashion week by announcing the arrival of a major sponsor – Unilever has stepped in with their brand Sunsilk to sponsor PFDC Fashion Week and work with them. It’s a union of fashion with big business that promises to lift the platform up to a whole new level.

A visibly glowing and proud Frieha Altaf introduced the designers Hassan Shehryar Yasin and Maheen Kardar who flew down from Lahore to represent the council and they did a fine job, with all the thunder being stolen by HSY, who has the gift of gab. He spoke about the business of fashion, how excited they were to be doing this and his experience of meeting buyers flying around the world, which he has been doing for years now. He spoke of the necessity to keep Pakistani identity alive by recounting his meeting with one buyer who told him, “I go to England to buy English clothes, I go to Italy for Italian and I will come to Pakistan to buy Pakistani.”

That in a nutshell, said HSY, defined what they were trying to do with PFDC Fashion Week. He also stressed on a visually brilliant layout for the fashion week which will be interesting to see, with media and buyer lounges and a sophisticated feel. “Fashion is about selling a lifestyle, so that is what we will aim to do at this event.”

HSY also gave a nod to Frieha Altaf saying, “I’ve seen more of Frieha in the past two weeks than in the past 20 years.” He also said just the right things about the tie-up with Sunsilk, a two-year strategic partnership that will be beneficial to both parties.

Corporate sponsorship opens up another vista for events like fashion week. Now that PFDC Fashion Week has become PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week, it will automatically get an international flavour. At the conference, Maheen Kardar announced that Jamal Hammadi, an LA-based stylist who has done hair for the likes of Drew Barrymore, Sharon Stone, Naomi Watts, Meg Ryan and Lisa Marie Presley, will be styling her show. Googling reveals that Hammadi was discovered by Linda Evangelista who gave him his first big break by pushing him to do her hair for a Vogue cover. Now, Hammadi has his own range of products and was one of the hair professionals picked up by Sunsilk in 2009 to formulate variants of hair products for different hair types. A corporation can generate synergy of this type; these are the seeds to sow that will make for a bigger fashion enterprise. A professional like Jamal Hammadi coming here, and going back to the West with tales of how Pakistan is not what it is made out to be, is the kind of boost that is needed from a fashion event.

The buzz at the PFDC Sunsilk press conference, where the fashion press was present in full force was that “These guys really seem to have the business of fashion sorted.” The announcements and more promised surprises left one hotly anticipating fashionweek.

Amir Paracha, VP, Home and Personal Care at Unilever pointed out that Lakme in India, also a Unilever brand, began the process of fashion weeks in the sub-continent with Lakme India Fashion Week that they did in conjunction with the Fashion Design Council of India. While the two have parted ways since, it is undeniable that it was a corporation that made the wheels of fashion move in an international direction.

While fashion journalists have historically bemoaned the lack of unity in the fashion front, the fact is that we now have two fashion weeks in Pakistan. However, both include designers from both cities. While Fashion Pakistan Week kick-started the process on a shoestring budget by going ahead against all odds and putting up a week that had the world press go crazy over fashion defying the Taliban, PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week definitely seems to be setting the scene for a more structured, ambitious direction for the business of fashion. They promised international buyers at the press conference and they are also giving importance to local buyers, which Fashion Pakistan didn’t. What one appreciates about the PFDC Sunsilk union is that there are so many powerful cogs in the wheel.

Sehyr Saigol, the Chairperson of PFDC wasn’t there, but she is obviously using all of her considerable clout to make fashion week an event to remember. She has roped in Frieha Altaf, who is not only directing the shows, but is also getting in touch with buyers. Selina Rashid, who has built up a reputation of being the premier publicist in the country, has been roped in for PR. Unilever is there, getting mileage for the Sunsilk brand and using their global pull to bring in international experts like Hammadi. Geo has stepped in as media partner – they’ll get exclusive runway coverage but otherwise PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week is open to all media. A mainstream channel goes a long way in boosting awareness, far more than fashion channels that don’t have ratings.

Apart from fashion designers themselves, who obviously have the biggest stake in fashion week, PFDC’s enterprise incorporates many big players who will support and facilitate the process, everyone bringing something extra to the table. With so many cogs, the wheel automatically gets bigger. And big business is exactly what fashion is supposed to be.

Source: Instep Today