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The lure of gold
She is the only jewellery designer registered with the Export Promotion Bureau. A well-known name in the field of 22 karat gold designer jewellery, Shireen has been in this field since 14 years. “I have done a few courses from Dubai but my standing today is due to experience,” said the designer who was recently in Karachi for a two-day exhibition at a local hotel.
In order to contain the true element of designer jewellery, Shireen prides herself in making only one-piece jewellery, never repeating her designs to ensure exclusivity, modernity and trend. She claims that her clients are trendsetters: “My own vision goes into designing; I don’t go through catalogues. If I am designing for a bride, it is important that she gives me her input, budget and a description of the bridal outfit. I try to meet her in person or she must send in her picture so I can create a piece accordance to the requirements. Innovation in design comes through people and what they want and the trends are decided by the people themselves.” Based in Islamabad and with a clientele stretching to Multan, Peshawar, Faislabad and Sialkot, Shireen has made her mark not only in Pakistan but worldwide. Her winter collection launched last year in Hilton Park Lane, London, was acclaimed to be one of the best collections ever launched by an international designer in the UK according to the September 20, 2005 issue of the Fashion UK Magazine.
Shireen came to Karachi to launch her summer collection presenting an exclusive blend of light weight, trendy and colourful jewellery with precious and semi-precious stones in different colours, styles and designs. Her collection comprised jewel sets in feroza, kundan, topaz, amethyst, rice/mother of pearl, tourmaline and jade. According to the designer, the trend in Karachi is that of semi-precious stones and people are going for tourmaline or tiger’s eye unlike ruby or emerald; hence the variety of stones in her collection. Keeping the trend of matching jewellery with the bridal dress, Shireen had brought a variety of summery colours like pastel yellows, pinks, aquamarine and lilac in her jewel pieces.
Every item in her exhibited collection was in one colour, in line with her philosophy of making one-piece jewellery. Even though the jewellery is light weight, the look is chunky and with gold rates going sky high, it is still reasonably priced. “I am not a jeweller and my minimum price range is Rs2,000 on 11 grams which is nothing if you look at the rise in gold prices. Even though gold prices are going very high, it is a stable safe investment and my advice to people is to buy and store gold because prices are going to go very high internationally.”
The sets on display at the launch were in the range of Rs25,000 to Rs55,000, with intending brides-to-be taking a keen interest in the collection. With a reasonable price range and exclusivity of designs, it is no surprise that Shireen’s launch in Karachi spelt success. — U.M.
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