Rizwan Beyg’s solo show at the 20th Pantene Hum Bridal Couture Week (BCW) played out to the tune of an especially created soundtrack of traditional Pakistani wedding songs.

The music fit in perfectly, for this whopping line-up of 52 designs was very proudly Pakistani, embellished by craftswomen living in the interior regions of southern Punjab, trained extensively by the designer. Aptly, the collection was titled ‘Jashan — A Celebration of the Artisan.’

It was a celebration, certainly — of the tiny stitches blended together over a matter of weeks and months in far-off villages in southern Punjab, finally taking the shape of the most exquisite couture and of the potential within Pakistani craft, given the right guidance and effort.

For over a decade now, Rizwan has been passionate about revitalising Pakistan’s craft communities that have slowly been dwindling away in the face of industrialisation. This collection was testament to those years of hard work.

The grand couturier’s ‘Jashan’ collection was a tribute to the craft techniques that are part of Pakistan’s wealth

The designs were quintessential Rizwan Beyg; heirloom pieces rather than wedding-wear that followed the latest fad. The silhouettes were limited to the classics that are the designer’s hallmark, elegant and flattering, the entire focus being on the intricate layers of hand-craft.

And what a treasury of hand-craft it was! Thread, gota and panni work merging to form paisleys and trellises, all meshed together so finely that there could be a thousand stitches on every patch of fabric. There were embroideries emulating truck-art motifs through colour and twinkling clusters of gold-forming arches, geometrics and florals on a standout selection of reds.

There were timeless chaddars with threadwork on them and silver filigree patterns glistening magically, much like Tolkien’s fictional metal mithril from the mines of Moria. That’s a Lord of the Rings reference that I have used to describe Rizwan’s work before. It just fits so well with the designs that are his forte, spellbinding and painstakingly created, much like the fictional armour metal excavated by the dwarves in the world created by Tolkien.

The collection was an extensive one, and it shifted from bright hues to pastels to majestic whites and from heavy lehngas and ghararas to simpler kameezes, all of them complimented by a glorious range of dupattas.

The range of traditional kurtas and pajamas made one wonder why the country’s wedding-wear designers have generally forgotten this classically beautiful silhouette that is such a perennial part of our daily wardrobes. Perhaps, they are too smitten with recreating desi versions of the Anglicized gown. There were none of those in Rizwan’s show, of course.

Instead, there were bright bursts of yellows that started off the show —lehnga cholis and ghararas with truck-art inspirations — followed by so much more; pastels worked with tone-on-tone thread embroideries, velvets, silks and age-old banarsi fabric and jamawar.

It was a carefully curated ode to nostalgia, a display of designs that have been cherished and worn by Pakistani women through time. It was also an ode to Rizwan Beyg, master craftsman, applying time and effort to empowering Pakistan’s craftswomen.

More than anything else, though, ‘Jashan’ was a tribute to the craft techniques that are part of Pakistan’s wealth. Watching the embellishments come to life on the catwalk, exquisite enough to rival the workmanship of any atelier from around the world, made one feel so proud.

Published in Dawn, ICON, December 25th, 2022