Fashion designers are thinking commerce. And they’re frenetically targeting the market for wedding-wear — where a single, crystal-laden, embroidery-smothered, blindingly blingy outfit can yield monumental profits.

This was clearly evident at the recent winter edition of Fashion Pakistan Week (FPW) which followed a Winter/Festive theme and was, therefore, dominated by wedding-wear. In fact, it was so evident that I would like to eliminate the word ‘fashion’ and rephrase my opening sentence to say that ‘designers are thinking commerce’ — because bona fide fashion has nothing to do with repetitive, lacklustre clothes churned off a cookie-cutter.

More than a decade ago, when the country’s fashion week omnibus was just getting into gear, fashion was at another extreme. The design community — considerably smaller at the time — thrived on making statements and creating drama with every collection. But while they won rave reviews, most of them refrained from making the transition from ramp to retail, never making the clothes available for actual customers. With limited business generated from fashion weeks that are, ideally, meant to be business-centric, it was all quite pointless.

Business is the primary driving force at fashion weeks but creative, exciting fashion has faded, only occasionally rearing its head, courtesy a few valiant designers. Some of these few were the saving grace of this season’s Fashion Pakistan Week

We’re at another kind of pointless now. Business is the primary driving force but creative, exciting fashion has faded, only occasionally rearing its head courtesy of a few valiant designers. Some of these few were the saving grace of this season’s FPW. Helping things along was crisp choreography by Nubain Ali, team Nabila executing well-finished hair and make-up backstage and a motley crew of some of the best models from Lahore and Karachi.

Regardless, local fashion weeks have ceased to be truly exciting now. Passes are easily available so the events are no longer exclusive, and crowd control tends to become an issue. Show timings continue to be exhaustingly late, almost always creeping towards 11pm — hardly work hours! ‘Real’ critiques are more or less nonexistent with (almost) every critic allowing the option for sponsored reviews. And regardless of whether the event is themed around prêt and luxury-wear or professing to cater to winter festivities, collections predominantly drone on in a never-ending cloud of same-looking shimmer. All that glitter is enough to make me cock-eyed — or better yet, gives me the chance to close my eyes against the dazzling glare and doze off.

“It’s high time that designers understand that they need to develop signatures and say something new with their collections,” designer Maheen Khan said to me during the course of the event. I agree. It is high time that more of our designers crack the code to creating fashion that is exciting and individualistic and then proceed to tweak it in order to make it retail-friendly. Very few do so far.

The ones that shone amidst the bling

Inevitably — and predictably — it was Maheen Khan who stood out with a collection that was distinctively her own, making fluid, seamless statements by simply draping and teasing raw silk to her tune. The luxury-wear, which was the highlight of the show, was true to the designer’s spirit, relying on tailoring, fabric and a small smattering of prints to make impact. The few wedding-wear options that came towards the end reflected Maheen’s vision for minimalism in this particular genre but they paled in comparison to the high-flying gloss that had preceded them.

The Pink Tree Company and Rano’s Heirlooms eulogised gota in myriad ways, interspersing it with all the colours of the rainbow and a parade of classic silhouettes. Both collections were certainly ‘safe’ but, then again, these are brands that are identifiable for their commitment to the old-school silhouettes and patterns inherent to subcontinental culture. They stayed true to this identity and their line-ups were cohesive and certainly very appealing. Wardha Saleem’s show also followed traditional lines with dashes of zing added in with vivacious spurts of colour.

On a completely different tangent, Maheen Karim designed for the luxe market that slips into a ball gown come winter. Hers was a well-tailored — albeit typically anglicised — collection that must be applauded for its inventive embellishments and finesse. And yet, the market for Maheen’s particular take on glamour is extremely limited in Pakistan.

Wrapping up fashion week was Deepak Perwani who chose to celebrate his 24 years in fashion with a separate solo show in a separate venue. His was a bridal procession, chalking the many ceremonial stages of a bride’s journey. It was beautiful and well-honed although I did miss the chutzpah that is signature Deepak when he diverts his mind from wedding-wear and turns towards creating modern, luxury-wear for women.

And then, there was HSY’s swaggering retinue of male models, suited quite impeccably for the final act on the first day of fashion week. The designer knows how to lift the generic suit from the bland, streamlining it and styling it until it talks the talk and walks the walk and becomes one of the highlights at a show that is high on energy. He isn’t called fashion’s favourite showman for nothing.

There were other brands that could be mentioned for beautiful, but very safe, collections: Tena Durrani and Zainab Chottani proved their prowess with heavily embellished wedding-wear while Aamna Aqeel dabbled with modern lines.

A galaxy of stars

What worked, then, amidst this constant deluge of sparkly, beautiful — but not very dramatic — clothes were the many celebrities that thronged the catwalk as showstoppers and others who sat in the front rows, watching the shows. Purists generally don’t like the concept of celebrity showstoppers because they tend to draw attention away from the clothes but, sometimes, as in the case of FPW, the fashion needs that extra burst of star power to stay interesting.

Additionally, it is only inevitable that the pictures of celebrities on runways tend to go viral more easily, flitting all over print and electronic media. They allow designers to catch the attention of potential customers and many vouch that clothes worn by popular celebrities on the catwalk tend to get ordered more frequently.

Helped along by the all-pervasive reach of social media, celebrity showstoppers, then, are an increasingly imperative tool that can generate business for fashion. This season’s FPW can give testament to the fact that even some of the most lacklustre collections trended rampantly on Instagram simply because they featured a well-loved celebrity.

The stars also twinkled every now and then from the front row: Adnan Siddiqui, Aijazz Aslam, Mansha Pasha, Adeel Hussain, Nausheen Shah and Naveen Waqar among them. “I am an enthusiast of good fashion,” Adeel Hussain told me after having watched all the shows at FPW on the first night. I wondered if he had been able to find it.

At the risk of being repetitive, good, actual fashion was hard to find, overshadowed by customer-friendly aspirations. I can’t really blame the Fashion Pakistan Council for this. They put up an event that was well-organised and had a potentially strong line-up, but they can’t be expected to mollycoddle well-known designers into creating fashion-forward clothes.

Fashion and fashion weeks in Pakistan have progressed to the point that designers — especially the experienced ones — should be able to gauge the importance of an impactful show rather than roll out one that looks more like a window display in a store.

There was a time when fashion weeks had been exciting, when one could subliminally hear drum rolls in the backdrop as the lights dimmed, the music blared out and new ideas and new trends took over the catwalk. The fanfare has faded out now, with only a few thumps becoming audible very occasionally. We need some drum rolls, please.

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 7th, 2018