It was indeed quite a surprise when Karachi’s Fashion Pakistan Council (FPC) set up a stall at the Trade and Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) 6th Expo Pakistan, whilst TDAP has collaborated with Lahore’s Pakistan Fashion and Design Council (PFDC) to bring forth PFDC Fashion Week, which kicked off on October 20.
Just as Pakistan is multicultural with diverse ethnicities, there are various fashion councils that have sprung up in the recent past. From a fashionistas point of view, however, only two hold some legitimacy in the foreground, the PFDC and …

As the much-anticipated and sensational awards show of the year, The Lux Style Awards (LSA), inches closer, the pace of celebrities heartbeat increases. Considered the ‘Pakistani Oscars’ by many, the LSA, despite a slumped economy, still manages to arouse the interest of people.
This year will see the 10th Annual LSA, The Express Tribune spoke to some celebrities and asked them some basic questions about previous award ceremonies.
Questions
Which year was your favourite Lux Style Awards and why?
Which designer lawn would you like to see win and why?
What is the …

At The Designer’s pre-eid launch, one observed how cleverly retailer Asad Tareen brought in names like Sadaf Malaterre, Adnan Pardesy, Mohsin Ali and Akif Mahmood, who have wowed us on the ramp but left us skeptical of when they retail.
To Tareen’s credit, he managed to get the best of what these names could contribute retail-wise. Even someone like Sadaf Malaterre, who had refused to go down the shalwar kameez route, managed to create a few garments in crushed fabric with her characteristic minimal bead embellishment for the bohemians to connote …

Inside Faisalabad’s state-of-the-art shopping center Sitara Mall, Labels launched its first shop in the city, marking a significant introduction of leading mainstream Pakistani brands in the area. The city, typically known for its rich culture, and of course its lucrative textile mills, is now becoming a vibrant market for fashion and retail.
With the store layered with various ready-made outfits, the occasion was marked with complimentary makeovers and the presence of major personalities from the fashion industry. The shop housed collections from many of the country’s biggest fashion brands including Aeisha …

Exploding bombs, bickering politicians and a deteriorating economy — these are routine features of everyday life in Pakistan. Yet remarkably so, the country’s thriving fashion scene remains conspicuously detached from these harsh realities. Triggered to commercially cater to popular elite tastes, leading designer apparel ironically exhibit sumptuousness and flamboyance that drastically contrasts with the country’s turbulent sociopolitical situation.
In Pakistan, designers have failed to draw inspiration from the social milieu. For them, fashion has been mostly about aesthetically pleasing hues and flattering cuts and flairs. Fashion gurus have hardly used their …

There is a breed, a very common breed, of Pakistani men which has the means to dress but lacks the sense. They are the ‘Gucci-Prada’ brigade who commit heinous crimes in the name of fashion every day.
Still, it’s easier to forgive those over the age of 35 for committing the sin of hyper-branding as they’re financially established and want to display their strange Louis Vuitton shirts as status symbols.
However, it is inexcusable for twenty somethings, or teens even, to walk around with Hermes belt buckles flashy enough to signal alien …

If there’s one thing that we will all remember from the summer of 2011, it’s the lawn invasion.
The billboards featuring bevies of models that hovered from above in their fabric laden glory, the Bollywood bazaar that resulted in heated Indo-Pak diatribes, the traffic blockages along the urban centres’ main veins and the stampede that ensued, as an avalanche of women marched with a mission: Must go get the whole nine yards!
All the craziness and inconvenience aside, lawn exhibitions proved how much purchasing power and textile …

Style360 Bridal Couture Week in association with J&S, brought the week to a close in a magnificent way. In keeping with the bold and challenging initiative it had taken up of changing the set everyday – there were red chandeliers on the first day, and egg-shaped lamps and chandeliers on the second – the ramp was decorated with a profusion of red roses and different chandeliers, with white cut-out roses adorning the stage.

The show organized by Style360 and sponsored by Pantene opened with Karachi’s home-grown Deepak Perwani, one of the well-reputed and brilliant fashion designers of Pakistan is a name that requires no introduction. His product line includes bridal wear, bridal accessories and saris.

Deepak Perwani never follows the traditional or ongoing fashion statement of the country; rather he makes ‘his own’. He showcased his latest collection of bridal wear, which was a treat to watch. Reem Abbasi and Amna Kardar came in next. Reem Abbasi is an Islamabad-based jewellery designer who produces not only modern, high fashion jewellery but also intricate and traditional pieces from Pakistan’s rich culture.

The fact that Pakistan is a treasure trove of craft is something we all know. But where these little gems of art are hiding, in which valley or village, how to pluck them out and incorporate them with modern life and its trends, is a Herculean task. “The levels to which urban Pakistan has reached is unfathomable by rural Pakistan,” says the designer Sahar Atif of Saai, who has been working extensively with rural women in an effort to revive traditional embroidery. “To bring these people to the forefront is …

How many lawn suits can one woman buy? Lawn’s not just selling well this summer, it’s getting sold out! On the first day of the Sana Safinaz exhibition in Karachi, women queued up outside the Expo center from the early hours of the morning. By night-time, the three-day long exhibition was completely sold out! And while one would expect such sales from a Sana Safinaz exhibition – they were sold out within two days last year – even designers Nomi Ansari and Deepak Perwani had to replenish stock in their …