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The cutting edge
Moazzam Abbasi is out to lunch. Actually, he is with two of his friends. The interview as yet a distant solidifier, our acquaintanceship is limited to a bit of trivia about his being the only designer of any repute from fashion’s struggling suitor, Hyderabad. Reluctant to be a gatecrasher, this writer finally gives in after Moazzam’s assurance that they will welcome a new addition to their lunch party. All my fears are immediately yanked and whisked away by a hurricane of liveliness and chatter as Moazzam Abbasi warms up to the occasion.
During the course of our meeting, I find Moazzam to be a flurry of gossip and activity. The course of our free-flowing banter is moulded by his numerous occupations and experiences in the industry. Moazzam Abbasi occupies a distinct niche in the market. More so than any other designer, his name is closely associated with the shows that accompany the launch of products by multinationals.
His ensembles are a regular feature of drama serials, commercials and music videos on television. “My budgets are a bit high and not all the channels can afford them,” he says. But it did not prove to be a hurdle in a recent TV project in which his input was upped a step when he was called in to assist the host in giving style makeovers to the contestants.
Updating looks was a natural progression for the designer whose specialty is making clothes for the urban woman. “I basically work in georgettes,” he explains, adding, “and my lines range from casual to semi-casual and formal to semi-formal. I’ve recently ventured into bridals but that’s not my forte. I make clothes for college-going young women to be worn on formal occasions, hanging out with friends, wedding occasions, etc.” Summing up his design philosophy, he says, “When you wear a Moazzam Abbasi outfit, it’s going to be something that you can wear on various occasions.”
‘None of the designers who’ve graduated from fashion schools have created waves. I don’t think Imrana Ahmed of Body Focus is a fashion school graduate and yet her clothes are beautiful. So are those by Sana Safinaz,’ says Moazzam Abbasi
The clothes, it seems, are as versatile as their originator. Aside from revelling in his primary passion, Moazzam is also a full-time teacher. “I teach at the National Textile College in Hyderabad and give tutorial classes. It keeps me busy and the kitchen fire burning as well.”
Elaborating on his professional concerns, he says, “The fashion school I teach at is for those with a middle to lower class background. It’s not a hi-fi school. Our market is rife with designers who are already groomed and financially strong when they come. For them to open outlets is not a difficult thing. And the buyers also come from strong fashion setups. If we want to expand fashion, we need to have people from the middle and lower-middle classes coming into this field and creating that awareness. It shouldn’t be necessary for a designer to speak English; it could be somebody who owns a shop or someone who drives a van. If they’re aware, we would have better groomed people on the streets.”
Hearing this, one would think that Moazzam is a strong proponent of the fashion schools already in existence. But ironically, his views are quite critical. “If you’re talking about good designers, none of the people who’ve passed from fashion schools, unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, have created waves. Or if there have been a couple of them, they’ve just been one/two-shoot wonders.” He goes on, “I don’t think Imrana Ahmed of Body Focus has graduated from any fashion school and yet her clothes are beautiful. So are those by Sana Safinaz. If you look at the designers from fashion schools, none of them have been very original or done anything great for our fashion industry.”
The question arises if Moazzam Abbasi has fared any better? He started off as a designer in 1992, around the same time as the many others who have since risen the rickety ranks to a position of comfortable recognition. He has yet to reach that comfortable position. Why? “The reason I didn’t make it big was that, firstly, I come to Karachi once a week so it’s often difficult for clients to get in touch with me. Look at Shamaeel, beautiful clothes but since she didn’t handle her PR very well, she’s been out of the market. You need to have contacts and you need to be in Karachi. Tell me, do you think HSY and Karma were popular in Karachi before they opened here? They were popular in Lahore only. A lot of people didn’t even know them here. My once-in-a-week visit makes it very difficult to make friends and establish contacts. I’ve actually lost contracts because I wasn’t able to come to Karachi on time.
“I had to start from scratch, including making friends. Most old-timers in the business had past associations to bank on. For example, Umar Sayeed was friends with Athar Shehzad, who, in turn, were friends with Iffat Rahim and Vaneeza Ahmed. For people like them it was very easy to get a good break. I, on the other hand, didn’t know a single soul and at the time there was a stronghold of the mafia. It wasn’t easy to get shoots published in magazines. You couldn’t even get the models to work for you.”
He does, however, give credit to that pioneering era for adhering to better quality control. “Things are much more commercial now. Designers aren’t quality conscious, neither are the models or photographers. When I started out, if you wanted to get a shoot done, you had to follow a certain protocol. The magazine or fashion editor had to see your clothes, the model would not come to the shoot even if you were ready to pay her price unless she was satisfied with the team you were working with and you had good references. These days, every third rate beauty parlour pays Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 to a photographer, gets a nice looking girl and is printed in most magazines,” he says.
The fungal growth of spurious publications is not spared his scorn. “There are a lot of Lahore-based magazines that, I’m sorry to say, are trashy and they’re promoting people who don’t deserve to get printed. It’s not a healthy trend at all. Abroad, designers don’t pay magazines for shoots. A magazine is supposed to promote fashion on its own and sell itself by being quality conscious. If you start taking money for it, you won’t criticize the clothes. And so you see a lot of garbage on the stands everywhere these days.”
Moazzam says he only produces about eight to ten outfits each month in order to deliver his creative best. In between, he shuttles tirelessly between Hyderabad and Karachi because, when there’s no fashion, there are always his friends to meet over lunch.
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