This Saturday, November 17, Pakistani design heavy weights Nickie Nina and Kamiar Rokni participated in one of Lahore’s premier charity fashion events, ‘9 women’ , held by the Lahore Grammar School Defence Campus in honour of the Depilex Smile Again Foundation .

This was a charity fashion event with a difference. The event concept required active participation from an exclusive panel of Lahore ’s top designers who personally trained students in design, cut, silhouette, colour, manufacture and retail over a period of time. The culmination of this training for Nickie Nina was exemplified at the show in its ‘Motherhood’ segment where Nickie Nina’s student trainees showcased three of their own creations inspired by the glamorous design duo on a ramp modelled by fellow students along with one original Nickie Nina number modelled by Iffat Omar.

It’s been 25 years since the fashion industry was first introduced to the phenomenon known as Imran Qureshi. To mark this turning point, we decided to give a bit of a twist to the obligatory interview: we had Imran interviewed by his own choice of journalist. That might not be how most people know famous fashion designer Rizwan Beyg as, but he was in actuality the perfect choice. Not only has he been a much-admired columnist of an English weekly, but he also happens to be great friends with our anniversary boy, and that is how an otherwise straightforward interview turned into a friendly chitchat session.

He sits at the table with his soft brown eyes and floppy hair and I look carefully for gray but there is none. He claims to be 47 but the face and slight build belie his claim. 25 years later Imran Qureshi is still very much a force to contend with and as the founding father of choreography in Pakistan is very much a part of the who’s who in fashion.

Hard-work, dedication and focus is Tahseen Tasneem’s motto, an upcoming stylist from Karachi and a former air hostess with the national flag carrier. She ventured into the beauty business about a year back and has never looked back since. “I joined PIA in 1987

As an air hostess and worked in that capacity for 15 years. But the time came when I wanted to do something more in sync with my family life and having undertaken a number of courses in styling, I decided to open up a salon on Zamzama Boulevard and called it Dazzles. As is usually the case, initially people didn’t know about my work and they had certain reservations about working with me. However, the people I did work with spread my name by word of mouth. Over the past one year, I have worked very hard with the aim to make a name in this field,” says Tahseen.

She came, she saw and she conquered. We are talking about Bollywood belle Urmila Matondkar and her whirlwind visit to Lahore. She rightly termed her trip as dosti ka safar since she was friendship and amity personified, calling for greater sports and cultural ties between India and Pakistan and rightly declaring that this would bring the two estranged neighbours together.

Urmila came to Pakistan for the video of rock band Fuzon that has been directed by Saqib Malik from Pakistan and P. Kakar from India - another dosti venture that might hopefully open the doors to such more ventures.

Three reasons why Abdullah wouldn’t make a good model:[1.] he seems to be the product of non-indigenous genes. [2.] He has a laid back attitude towards PR in modeling. [3.] He sometimes deceives the viewer into thinking that he/she is looking at Farooq Mannan.

Firstly, If people cannot at some level relate to the face they see in the image, they will not buy into the fantasy of whatever he is so alluring advocating. Furthermore, shyly spurning diversification and trading fashion magazines and swanky celebrity soirées for textbooks and motorcycle joyrides is not the way to go about advancing a career hinged on media appearances and keeping up appearances. And finally, fashion is about change: people don’t want to see variations of the same face over and over again.