How can one forget Marilyn Monroe’s billowing white cocktail dress from The Seven Year Itch? Or Givenchy’s little black dress made timeless by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Alicia Silverstone’s plaid mini-skirts in Clueless, Elizabeth Taylor’s dramatic Cleopatra or zoning in on Bollywood, Madhubala immortalising Anarkali in Mughal-i-Azam, Madhuri Dixit’s hit purple sari in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Kareena Kapoor bringing back the shalwar in Jab We Met and Priyanka Chopra’s risqué Desi Girl … only a few of fashion and film’s many dalliances.
Where cinema is larger-than-life, fashion plays well on its platform, adding in all-important doses of glamour. It is a link that often leads up to big business. A case in point is the career trajectory of Indian designer Manish Malhotra. Malhotra began his career 26-odd-years ago as a costume designer for film, won over audiences with his take on Bollywood glam, and has proceeded to become one of the biggest names in Indian fashion today.
In a similar vein, Indian brand Diva’ni — soon to venture into Pakistan with a store in Lahore — relies on film-inspired wardrobes as its claim to fame. Launched by Yash Raj Films and the Delhi-based Karol Bagh Sari House, the brand seeks to stay true to the aesthetics of the late Yash Chopra. The director was infamous for making his heroines look their best — a sari-clad Sri Devi a la Chandni or a smoky-eyed Rekha, for instance. Diva’ni’s main clientele consists of women who hope to somehow recreate that magic for themselves — that’s no big surprise.
And yet, while fashion and film steamrolled together throughout the world, the alliance took a backseat in Pakistan when cinema dipped through a long decline. In its heydays, local cinema featured a fair share of sirens — Madam Noor Jehan with her artfully plucked eyebrows, Zeba’s carefully coiffured hair and saris and a besuited debonair Waheed Murad come to mind — but these savants were soon replaced by a spate of bhangra-lovin’ lungi-wearing Gujjars. Far too busy wielding their gandasas, they didn’t really worry too much about making fashion statements.
Fashion and film have long been intertwined; two behemoths throbbing to different tunes, only to blend now and again to create new symphonies. Iconic fashion moments are thereby created and cinematic history is replete with them
Fast-forwarding to present-day, cinema has had a turnaround. Well on its way to getting ‘revived’, its path is being paved by a motley crew of young hot steppers who always make sure that they look good.
Filmi fashion, present-day
“Film is supposed to take audiences on a visual journey, making them fantasise about the characters and their locales. In order to do this, the perfect setting needs to be created and consequently, fashion — or better phrased, styling — plays an important role in the narrative,” emphasises director Asim Raza, whose Ho Mann Jahaan (HMJ) released earlier this year. “In HMJ, I wanted my characters to look stylish enough to inspire today’s youth while simultaneously being relatable to the multiple age and income groups who would be watching the movie. I chose each character’s style very carefully so that it complemented their personality, the times that they were living in and differentiate them from each other.”
Similarly, Sultana Siddiqui, president of Hum Network Limited, observes how trends can go viral through cinema and the all-pervasive TV drama. “There are so many factors that combine to create a movie and wardrobe is one of them. And cinema and TV have tremendous power. I remember how in Hum Films’ Bin Roye, Mahira Khan wore short shirts and baggy shalwars in a lot of scenes. It was a statement that immediately became popular.”
The fashion-savvy Mahira, in fact, is a designer favourite both on and off the screen. “She’s very graceful and knows how to carry clothes,” says designer Moeed Yousaf of Muse, whose brand did not show at a fashion week at all last year due to business demands. It nevertheless managed to stay in the limelight simply by being worn frequently on the red carpet by Mahira Khan.
“When a popular lead actress walks on the catwalk as your showstopper, she gets photographed incessantly. It’s the one picture that everyone notices when it filters on to social media and print. That’s the impact of star-power and ultimately, of cinema.”— Nomi Ansari
Cinema sirens
Many other stars and starlets have veered towards fashion as they shed away their do-gooder housewife drama roles and latch onto cinema’s wider wings.
In Jawani Phir Nahin Ani (JPNA), Sohai Ali Abro danced while wearing a fully embellished lehnga by Ali Xeeshan, Sanam Saeed’s Indian girl in Bachaana was dressed by Lala Textiles, Ayesha Omer played the ‘tutti frutti’ bombshell in Karachi Se Lahore (KSL) while wearing Tena Durrani, and Feeha Jamshed designed Mahira’s boho-chic wardrobe in HMJ.
Mehreen Jabbar’s upcoming Dobara Phir Se (DPS) features multiple designers while images of Nomi Ansari’s designs for 2 Plus 2 have found their way to social media. “In movies, being realistic is a priority,” says actress Mehwish Hayat. “If I play a glamorous role, I’d be opting for the best designer wear. Similarly, at red carpet affairs, I have to look good on camera. Fortunately, we have some exceptional designers in Pakistan and can always rely on them.”
Designer Nomi Ansari, who has an infamous penchant for dressing stars, explains, “Actresses understand precisely how to attune their personality with different clothes. They know precisely how to look good and some of them are incredibly hard-working. I love dabbling into cinematic wardrobe for precisely these reasons — maybe it’s because I am very filmi myself!”
The box office effect
But aside from fulfilling a love for the celluloid screen, does creating cinematic wardrobes yield lucrative benefits for designers?
“I always insist on getting paid for wardrobe design,” says Deepak Perwani, whose clothes are soon to be seen in DPS. “For one, quite a few days are invested into getting the clothes ready, days that would otherwise be occupied with creating new stock for my stores. Also, even if the clothes are returned to us after the scenes are shot, they are usually in no condition to be reused. A single song may be shot over three days and the clothes are worn and re-worn, the embroidery usually falls off or the fabric gets stained. Film serves as a great marketing tool for fashion but still, it is only fair that film-makers recognise the hard work that we have put in and pay us.”
Most significantly, the on-screen wardrobe of a movie’s leading lady is noticed the most. “In one song in Bin Roye, Mahira’s character celebrated Chand Raat and wore an embroidered three-piece by us,” describes Umair Tabani, CEO of Sania Maskatiya. “We got a lot of client enquiries and orders for that design. Our clothes were also worn by some of the supporting actors, but what Mahira wore got noticed the most.”
Nomi Ansari agrees. “When a popular lead actress walks on the catwalk as your showstopper, she gets photographed incessantly. It’s the one picture that everyone notices when it filters on to social media and print. It’s the one design that everyone remembers. That’s the impact of star-power and ultimately, of cinema.”
But fashion needs to be wielded carefully in cinema’s terrain, something that actor-producer Humayun Saeed understood well while selecting from a varied montage of designer wear to be featured in his hit from last year, JPNA. “The wardrobe has to suit the various characters,” he points out. “A designer-made crop top and shorts would just look ridiculous on an actress playing the girl-next-door. The right clothes need to be chosen. Audiences are very discerning now. They have access to the latest international releases, come from very diverse backgrounds and are well-acquainted with trends. A good on-screen wardrobe adds to a movie’s finesse.”
Needless to say, the wrong wardrobe choices can make even the best storyline look tacky. One only has to think back to cinema’s darker days when the rich heroine would be showered with bling overdose while the village girl would get her voluptuous frame squeezed into midriff-baring bawdy concoctions. Today’s nascent cinematic scene, as it gathers its bearings, is sartorially savvy. Let’s hope it stays that way … for the love of film, for the love of fashion.
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, July 24th, 2016
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