This was never more felt than at Karachi Fashion Week — Men’s Fashion 2015 held in the lawns of the beautiful Mohatta Palace Museum with grooming by N-Gents, choreography by Imran Kureishi, model talent management by Muneer Mohammed and media management by Starlinks, and featuring some A-list designers like Amir Adnan, HSY and Umar Sayeed among others.

“Menswear is an important component of any fashion industry and needs due recognition. People in our country have just started wearing readymade garments as opposed to having them stitched. They still have not realised the value addition of fashion,” says Amir Adnan. “Events like Men’s Fashion help inculcate the culture of wearing higher value clothing which in turn will boost the overall industry. Fashion leads the way for the apparel industry which is necessary for the growing economy of Pakistan.”

And according to HSY, “The menswear industry has huge potential and I believe that events like these are a great initiative in promoting fashion and trends for men.”

Karachi is thought by many to be a man’s town. However, there is one area where women rule without question and that’s fashion!

“Men’s Fashion is a good effort and with a very good venue this time,” stated Umar Sayeed. “All the big designers were participating in it, so did I.”

But, before we get to the logistics of KFW — Men’s Fashion, let’s review the fashion itself. Day One opened with Amir Adnan at his most elegant: textured jamawars, silks and linens paired with cotton chinos made up the heart of his collection. Calligraphy in the form of embroideries and prints added impact to his jackets. Rich colours — maroon and rust in particular — made up the warm palette.

FnkAsia showcased at Men’s Fashion for the first time. Jacard fabrics, linens, silks, velvets with hints of cotton made up the collection that was fun, youthful, young at heart and inspired by pop-up colours to add flamboyance to an otherwise warm palette collection.

Maaz Jee had a young and fun collection as well, ranging from all black pieces to multi-faceted, multi-coloured jackets.

Rizwanullah closed Day One with a white and black collection with zombie make-up on his models. Casual and wearable, it missed the traffic-stopping structure he usually has with his women’s collections.

On Day Two, the ever-chic Umar Sayeed transitioned from colourful to beige to gold to a black finale. Sayeed used pure silks and pure cottons to a regal collection of groom’s wear from Mehndi through Mayun to Nikah. “It was a signature collection,” stated Sayeed, “defined by quality and workmanship.”

Deepak & Fahad and Emraan Rajput infused young blood into the design spectrum. FHS by Hub had a noteworthy collection of casual wear with accessories with supermodel Nadia Hussain as the muse.

HSY closed out Men’s Fashion with a rich, textured collection of embellished fabrics and bold pairings. He matched some former heavily-worked blazers with casual jeans and pants, playing with different looks. “We incorporated a variety of fabrics in our sherwanis like pure karandi, silks, rich velvets, and jamawars combined with traditional embellishment techniques to create timeless pieces for the HSY groom,” said Sheroo.

Men’s Fashion Week also featured performances by Rizwan Ali Jaffri, winner of Album of the Year at Lux Style Awards 2014, and Ali Haider, as well as a surprise performance by Amjad Ali Sabri.

With such great designers and exciting clothes, why would this fashion event make the boys cry? First off, weekends during the height of Karachi’s winters can be tough to draw in crowds. Even attending socialites slipped out after one or two shows to attend weddings and other winter dos.

“I think Men’s Fashion should not be neglected,” says Huma Adnan of FnkAsia, “It is an integral part of the success of fashion progress in Pakistan. This was a promo to what Men’s Fashion Week should be like, but it needs to improve and a lot of R&D needs to go in — there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

The set-up also faced tough challenges: an open-air ramp is always harder to do well and this one braved stray cats and wisps of grass besides slush and mud on Day Two. Very cute for Instagram and social media, but not at all professional for a fashion event such as this.

Although the sponsors were there and the spending was great, there hardly seemed to be a strong buyer turnout among the audience, which minimised the importance of men’s fashion. Considering the immense efforts being made to attract buyers at all the other fashion weeks, this one paled in comparison.

The Red Carpet also fell way short of giving a truly glamorous introduction to the men’s fashion fiesta. It needed pizzazz, ushers and a glam TV host to bring life to the relatively deserted area. That being said, the illuminated façade of the impressive Mohatta Palace served as a stunning backdrop against which quality menswear was played out.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 3rd, 2016