LAHORE: With a line-up of 16 designers and seven textile houses and high street brands, and evolving corporate synergies, the Pakistan Fashion Design Council (PFDC) commenced its eighth consecutive showcase, the PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week, on Saturday at the Expo Centre.

On the opening day, Fahad Hussayn had a story to tell in print and embroidery with florals, a smattering of heavily embellished beige outfits, kaleidoscopic and fish-scale impressions in full skirts, men’s jackets, etc.

The Bank Alfalah Rising Talent showcase that has become a constant at all fashion weeks featured Hisham Malik’s feminist collection titled ‘Zirah’, N Qazi’s sheer and solids, Asrar’s take on the art of camel fur pattern trimming found in Rajasthan and Nida Waqar with deconstructed half jackets, layers and insect-wing patterns. A final showing had all four fashion grads and aspiring designers put an outfit each in patent Bank Alfalah colours.

Misha Lakhani showed a not-so-impressive collection of short capes, strapless, billowy tops, tunics, lace tops and a powder pink dress.

Zonia Anwaar was much more impressive with her collection of stone-encrusted, embellished necklines; geometric impressions, tunics and cigarette pants in mix-and-match prints and Kenyan mask prints with wooden impressions on boxes as fashion accessories.

Natasha Kamal’s frilly baby doll short dresses, tops, black-on-white vintage cocktail outfits, fabric patterns with studs gave off a dramatic effect with sleek, stylish and understated elegance. Hina Bayat in a sari was the showstopper.

Ending Day One was the Nickie Nina duo with delicate lace work, basic black, floral print dresses and heavily worked tunics in beige.

DAY TWO: Textile houses and high street brands Generation, Shirin Hassan, Rayya Gilani and Beechtree opened the day with their ramp shows before the luxury/pret shows scheduled for later in the evening.

Muse featured feather-trimmed skirts and classic black and white combos with bling were high on wearability. The fact that Misha Shafi in the audience was also wearing an outfit from the same collection endorsed the fact.

Saira Shakira played with retro chic in short dresses, a pleated and tiered technicolour dress and basically working with textures to create feel-good prints.

Nida Azwer flirted with Iznik and Persian ceramic patterns to produce mesh tops, flora and fauna prints with blue on white and its variations on silks, cotton net and net.

Teena by Hina Butt created tiered Eastern motifs such as the paisley into a colourful spectrum with a variation in cuts such as tunics, strapless short dresses with 3D prints and thick silk thread embroidery in candy colours, which was exciting to watch and would be a privilege to wear.

The finale on Day Two went to Zara Shahjahan who chose to show her take on classic Eastern outfits with a strong semblance to the ’80s. She made the waistcoat more fashionable for women and romanced the bygone era with variations in the ghagara choli, which was a fashion staple of that period.

Styling on all days of the event has been handled by Nabila and N-Gents with show production and choreography by HSY.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play