STYLE: THE SHOW MUST GO ON

Published April 28, 2019
Rizwan Beyg
Rizwan Beyg

The third edition of Hum Showcase wrapped up a long spate of fashion events. It’s been a hectic season, with one event following close on the heels of another, and organisers racing to lay out the catwalk before Ramazan begins and fashion week season ends — only to be taken over by Eid fashion season, of course. For a country that is perpetually teetering at the edge of economic crises and encumbered by an ever-expanding lower class, we do boast a constant high-end fashion scene.

But look beyond the glitz and the joie de vivre and you’ll realise that, while this booming demand for fashion may be for an exclusive niche, it is actually fostering the economy in many ways: providing jobs, sustaining indigenous artisans and building upon a positive image for Pakistan.

This, in essence, is the purpose served by our parade of fashion events. They further the business of fashion. Hum Showcase may not be a fashion week — it has never claimed to be — but it, too, provides a platform to designers where they can bloom, should they have the capacity to do so, and attract clientele.

Despite coming at the tail-end of an exhausting line-up of fashion events, the third Hum Showcase made its mark with attention given to the catwalk and venue. It was helped by the steady curation of Rizwan Beyg who did his best to prevent aesthetics from fluctuating too much

For the past three years, it is a platform that has consistently featured a mix of designers, the veterans and the fledglings, the couturiers and the high-street brands, from its home base in Karachi as well as from Lahore. This is the case with all fashion weeks but there are certain factors that work in Showcase’s favour.

For one, it is a show orchestrated by one of the country’s biggest television networks and, therefore, is not entirely dependent on the magnanimity of sponsors. Instead, since the show will later be televised, slotted for long weekends and festive occasions, considerable attention appears to be given to the catwalk and the venue. However, the calibre of fashion on the catwalk could have easily fluctuated in TV’s generic waters except that there is another factor that hasn’t so far allowed this to happen.

This brings us to Showcase’s second asset: the presence of veteran designer Rizwan Beyg as its director. Rizwan is one of the country’s fashion pioneers and his aesthetic has always been in a league of its own. With his name up in the credits, he has so far ensured that Showcase is a curated offering. This year, like in the past two years, there were plenty of well-known, popular ateliers — and some promising debut shows — in the event’s repertoire.

Wardha Saleem
Wardha Saleem

DOES THIS MEAN THAT THE FASHION AT SHOWCASE PUSHED THE ENVELOPE?

It did, quite often. But, as is the case with all group fashion events, there were also times when it did not. If Rizwan Beyg, as show director, had been making an effort to maintain a credible montage of designers, his involvement also meant that his name would feature in the designer line-up. And as a master couturier, he always ensures that he puts forward an impeccably crafted show. He did so this year too, amalgamating craft, structure and silhouette on to an ivory palette in ‘Pearlessence’.

There were other designers who proved their mettle on the runway. Zaheer Abbas’ artisanal construction of cotton was a standout, Sublime by Sara Shahid adeptly played with the colours of the sunset, Zonia Anwaar’s anglicised floral line-up was very well-conceived, Wardha Saleem’s block prints introduced new options for festive wear, HSY dabbled with athleisure, Khaadi Khaas swayed to gypsy tunes and Sana Safinaz oozed glamour.

Hussain Rehar and Mahgul’s collections were more hit-and-miss, although both collections had their high points. On the high street, Image Fabrics presented pretty traditional options while Nine Lines rolled out a kaleidoscope of colour in their catwalk debut with their quirky pop art on clothes and accessories. Another promising debut was made by the young brand U&I by Umer and Imrana who blended bright colours on to handloom fabric in easy summer silhouettes.

One of Showcase’s strongest collections was delivered by designer Emraan Rajput, who put an all-white, crisply tailored spin to local menswear’s mostly dreary landscape. The collection was quite impressive and has managed to consolidate Emraan’s position amongst the very small group that encompasses the country’s finest menswear designers.

This brings us to Showcase’s second asset: the presence of veteran designer Rizwan Beyg as its director. Rizwan is one of the country’s fashion pioneers and his aesthetic has always been in a league of its own. With his name up in the credits, he has so far ensured that Showcase is a curated offering.

But flip the shiny, glinting coin over and there was also a duller side that was forgettable at best, and garish at its worst. There were some very bad menswear collections that were eyesores and absolute fodder for internet memes — a certain collection with an upside down men’s kurta on it, a tiger-inspired jacket and a frilly kurta shalwar come to mind.

U&I by Umer and Imrana
U&I by Umer and Imrana

There were also women’s wear designers who made that all too prevalent mistake of cutting Western silhouettes when they were possibly far more capable of creating a neat kurta shalwar. These gowns — ‘goans’ as our starlets pronounce them when they wear them on the red carpet — were the speed bumps that prevented the three-day-long event from being a smooth ride.

Thankfully, the ride wasn’t extremely bumpy.

WHAT MAKES SHOWCASE DIFFERENT, THEN?

Then again, to be fair, all through this fashion season, sitting through multiple fashion weeks, I have seen some truly impeccable collections — and a plethora of truly ghastly gowns. At Showcase, and at all fashion events, aesthetics tend to yo-yo. There are hits and misses and all event organisers can hope to do is try to outbalance the bad with the good.

What made Showcase slightly different from its peers, though? In a nutshell, its strengths lay in the show’s implementation. Most significantly, the show’s timings were very impressive. It is generally accepted in Pakistan that a group designer fashion show will have a duration of two hours at least, culminating close to 11 in the night — if you’re lucky, that is. There have also been shows, in the not too distant past, that have wrapped up around midnight. Designer HSY, in fact, often used to joke that a few more minutes in we would all turn into pumpkins. This is not true but the mind does begin to feel like pumpkin-like orange mush when the clock inches towards 12 and the fashion bonanza continues on doggedly.

Nine Lines
Nine Lines

Coming back to the point, only recently, I sat through hour-long delays in between shows at fashion weeks. At Showcase, though, line-ups that consisted of seven showcases every day, wrapped in a little more than an hour. The shows moved on at a slick pace; upbeat, precise, quick but impactful.

In addition, the event featured a diverse range of models varying from local favourites to others, flown in from different parts of the world. The catwalk looked very interesting and had international appeal with African Americans, Chinese and European girls in every model pool along with Pakistani faces. The catwalk, itself, was also well-conceived — laid out in a broad expansive white.

IS LOCAL FASHION ON THE DECLINE?

But despite these efforts and a fashion season that has featured some very strong collections overall, Showcase’s conclusion has been followed up by occasional critique on Twitter that fashion in Pakistan is on the wane, overridden by commercialism.

Khaadi Khaas /Photos: Arsalan Bukhari
Khaadi Khaas /Photos: Arsalan Bukhari

In the case of certain designers, this really is true, with creativity relegated to the sidelines and commercial, generic aesthetics being promoted. But this spring/summer has also been packing in the punches with a strong line-up of very good, trendsetting collections. There have been designers who have made strong debuts, brands that have reasserted their high-street signatures, established ateliers that have built upon their ethos and others that have infused their designs with a sense of individuality.

Showcase, with its penchant for couture and prêt, and aversion to the embroidery-laden bride on the catwalk, did boast some of these very good collections. In fact, the good easily outweighed the bad. In this era of fluctuating aesthetics and multiple back-to-back fashion events, that’s the most that a fashion event can deliver.

But now, having completed three years, will the show go on? I hope so although good things often come to sudden ends in Pakistani fashion — sponsors back out, there are terror scares and more often than not, designers fall out. I hope there are no falling outs in Showcase’s case.

The show should go on.

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 28th, 2019

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