What’s the secret to creating a successful lawn collection? What elusive algorithm needs to be followed to come up with a three-, four- or five-piece concoction of unstitched fabric that drives crowds into a frenzy, causing online e-stores to crash, long queues to form in marketplaces and profits to run high?

It is a mystery that has evaded many a designer through the annals of time, as he or she prepares to cater to the mass market with a seasonal lawn line-up.

There are some who have managed to crack the code — for some time at least — ruling the roost as lawn moguls before, some years down the line, another usurps their throne. There are some who have failed so miserably that, despite launching with much hype and hoopla, they are nowhere to be seen the following year.

The market for luxury lawn — the name coined for unstitched fabric suits launched in the summer, consisting primarily of cotton with organza, chiffon and silk add-ons — is a competitive one and, despite rising inflation, it’s still very much there. However, the dynamics of the market keep evolving.

What exactly makes a luxury lawn collection successful? There is no guaranteed formula for success, and many have fallen by the wayside trying to divine it, but there are some key factors that seem to work.One of them may be keeping up with the times…

There was a time, about six-odd years ago, when Pakistan witnessed a luxury lawn ‘boom’. It was the ‘it’ fabric to wear. Customers were buying suits in the dozens and everyone, from designers to textile giants, latched on to the lawn bandwagon, wanting a slice of the lucrative ‘lawn pie’. People who understood the market had observed sardonically that the boom couldn’t last and, after some time, only a few contenders would remain while others would back off after weathering losses.

This is that time. Many high-end designers who had dabbled with the fabric for some time are no longer bringing out regular collections. Quite a few have declared that they are no longer interested because they find the lawn market too uncreative and mass-centric. This might be true for some of them but, in most cases, it’s a case of sour grapes — the designers’ lawn collections just didn’t do well and, having endured losses, they decided to step away.

Some major labels are still going strong although, with rising costs and inflation hacking away at customers’ spending power, they are working hard just to break even. Only a few designer brands have been consistent — Sana Safinaz come to mind, having revolutionised lawn about 26 years ago, uplifting it from pedestrian daily wear to high fashion, and continuing to be major contenders in the market. 

There are also a few good men — and women — who are luxury lawn newbies and have high hopes for lasting the long haul. They may or they may not. On the clustered lawn playing field, many have come and many have gone, and only a few remain.

Which brings us back to the question at hand: what exactly makes a luxury lawn collection successful? There is no guaranteed formula for success, but there are some key factors that seem to work.

The designer signature

During the earlier lawn boom, a deluge of luxurious collections swamped the market and, while many of them were very pretty, the designs were often repetitive and entirely forgettable. Even if the fabric were great and the suit fulfilled the jigsaw puzzle-like requirements of embroidered sleeves, silk dupatta, embellished borders and necklines, the design lacked a distinctive signature. The sales may have come in during the initial years, but customers lost interest over time.

Ideally, a designer lawn collection needs to be an extension of the high-end ethos associated with the brand. For instance, Sana Safinaz (SS) established their colossal lawn fan-base many years ago because the brand’s very expensive, very exclusive signature was visibly translated to the pedestrian, affordable realms of lawn in their yearly collections. This continues to be one of the reasons why SS lawn continues to be popular.

Similarly, on the high-street, Image Fabrics has become a lawn favourite because it has refused to be influenced by the design aesthetics of other contenders, sticking to the cotton chikankari that has long been its hallmark. Image Fabrics’ regular unstitched collections are instantly recognisable and this USP (unique selling proposition), along with quality control, has helped build a loyal clientele for the brand.

Many other collections this year have a decipherable signature: Hussain Rehar’s unstitched collections follow a unique colour palette and patterns, Zara Shahjahan’s understated, minimal aesthetic is evident in her collections, textile brand Crimson has a penchant for intricate laces and borders stitched to form entire swathes of fabric, and designer Mohsin Naveed Ranjha, who made his debut in the lawn market this year, created heavy-duty designs synonymous with his brand’s bold, elaborate signature. Faiza Saqlain, another lawn debutante, has worked with the colours and free-flowing silhouettes that are also an intrinsic part of her luxury-wear.

Over the past two years, designer Sania Maskatiya has also dabbled with her eponymous luxury lawn, making sure that her high end luxury-wear aesthetic was translated to the unstitched fabric. From the colour palette to the neat, dainty floral embroideries to the textured fabric, the unstitched collection is very similar to the more formal Sania Maskatiya designs, but at a lower price range.

Having said this, Sania Maskatiya’s annual lawn is sold only through the designer’s retail outlets. The limited quantities produced leads to the price of the lawn being considerably higher than other brands in the market — ranging between Rs18,500 to Rs26,500 for the very embellished designs. Only a select customer base is willing to pay this extra amount and the brand’s CEO, Umair Tabani, understands this, describing their lawn as a “niche product”.

Money matters

On the other hand, most luxury lawn labels churn out collections in mass quantities. They may sell through their own stores but they also supply to retailers across the country. A lawn suit, placed in a multi-brand retail store, sandwiched between multiple other brands, has to be competitively priced in order to draw in customers. It is also faced with the dilemma of enticing customers whose buying power has decreased, thanks to inflation.

“Maintaining a certain price range has become very, very difficult because everything, from fabric to yarn to salaries of workers have increased,” says Maliha Aziz, who helms the very popular Farah Talib Aziz (FTA) lawn. “The only way to bring down prices is to cut back on quality, and that is something we refuse to do.”

This year’s FTA lawn mixed and merged textured fabric, applique, laser cutwork and embroideries in a formal unstitched collection priced around Rs15,000 — a price point that is higher than what it was last year but is prevalent across most luxury lawn collections this time.

“The only reason why we have managed to establish this price is because we bought our chiffons and silks beforehand. If we had purchased our fabric now, there was no way we could have maintained this price for the amount of embroidery and quality fabric that we’re offering in a single suit,” says Maliha.

A large number of brands opt to release multiple unstitched lawn lines to capture a wider market. Designer Hussain Rehar, for instance, has just delved into a festive lawn which is priced between Rs9,000 rupees and Rs12,000 rupees.

“We’ve cut back on design details in order to bring down our costs,” says Hussain, “but, at the same time, we’ve tried to keep the overall look of the lawn as formal, by bringing together patterns, colours and embroideries. A more elaborate, much more formal, more expensive unstitched line will be releasing after Eid.”

Similarly, at Crimson, the brand’s relatively lower priced lawn line — teetering around Rs12,000 — is aimed for a pre-Eid release. Later in the year, the textile house’s very elaborate luxury lawn collection with design house Saira Shakira will be launched, probably priced much higher.

Crimson’s CEO Anum Javed Akram describes it thus: “Even with the current collection, there are a lot of details in every suit. We usually create a lawn design without keeping the price in mind. We’ll devise new techniques of stitching, add laces and borders and often have some of the embroideries created by hand, to be translated to machine work later, when we mass-produce. We then work backwards, trying to find ways of bringing down costs of production.”

And so on. At Zara Shahjahan, there is a lower priced ‘Coco’ line preceding the more formal Zara Shahjahan range. Maria B. offers M Prints, which is currently under Rs10,000. Image Fabrics dabbles with the pricier Lawnkari and the more economical Printkari. The Asim Jofa brand brings out collections all through the year, including printed, affordable options and embellished, more expensive ones. Sana Safinaz can be considered pioneers, having diversified beyond their SS Luxury Lawn line years ago.

“We introduced the Muzlin line which has lower price points but still has some embroidery and formal elements,” describes designer Safinaz Munir, “and then, we came up with Maahay, which relies entirely on beautiful prints and is much more economical.

“SS Luxury Lawn, on the other hand, is a more niche product. Lawn sales have certainly been hit by inflation but we manage to do well because we’re covering every demographic within the market through different collections.”

Designer Mohsin Naveed Ranjha says, “It’s very important that customers get value for money, and this makes them more willing to spend. With our debut unstitched lawn line, we’ve given more fabric than what is shown in the catalogue photograph. I think that customers will appreciate this. It’s very important to gain customers’ loyalty and trust. I don’t plan to design unstitched lawn just for one season. I want it to be part of my brand in the long run.”

Every lawn brand follows a different marketing strategy and pricing, as a result, differs. “Brands are able to cut down on prices when they are manufacturing in mass quantities,” Maliha Aziz points out. “With smaller productions, profit margins end up being lower and pricing has to be higher just to break even.”

Deliveries matter

It isn’t enough to create an innovative, great quality lawn collection that appeals to the mass market — it’s also necessary to make sure the lawn reaches the customer. There’s an avid crowd of lawn lovin’ ladies who spend hours deciding on the designs that they like before pre-booking their preferences, either online or with retailers who have the suits physically available in their stores after the launch date.

Customers look forward to receiving the suits that they have ordered, many planning to promptly get them stitched for a particular occasion. They remember if their orders get delayed, and they may never trust the brand again.

A case in point is Elan Lawn, a major lawn favourite, which suffered heavily about two-odd years ago when it couldn’t deliver lawn suits on the scheduled date to customers. The brand apologised in an online statement, citing that the restrictions levied during the coronavirus pandemic had slowed down production and delivery. While some customers may have had understood, many were livid and ranted profusely on social media.

“We’ve been very particular about announcing our lawn collection and opening the pre-booking option only once we have the majority of the designs in stock,” says Sania Maskatiya. “We are so fortunate to have customers who get excited about our designs and we can’t risk disappointing them.”

The future is stitched!

Far from the madding crowd of unstitched lawn enthusiasts, there is a growing diaspora that can’t be bothered to buy unstitched fabric, soak it in water for ‘shrinking’ and invest time, fuel and considerable energy into getting it stitched by a tailor.

Khaadi’s founder Shamoon Sultan has, on various instances, assessed that, “The demand for unstitched fabric in Pakistan is phenomenal. For many women, it is a hobby to buy fabric and design it according to their own preferences.” Now, in a more recent conversation, he said to me, “There is a growing demand for stitched lawn, especially in the urban cities.”

Even moving beyond the bigger cities, the number of working women across Pakistan is increasing. These women have greater spending power and often, no time to be at loggerheads with no-good tailors. The Pakistani summer is long and tiresome and the demand for lightweight lawn will always be there; it is likely, though, that many customers’ interest may shift from unstitched to stitched options.

Brands are already latching on to this possibility. Saira Shakira have launched a stitched lawn line for Eid and Hussain Rehar plans to bring out one in the next month. Sana Safinaz are working on launching an online stitching option for their unstitched fabric by the end of this year, with Safinaz observing that, “This is what the market requires now.”

Khaadi has intuitively stepped up the game by offering stitched and unstitched options simultaneously for some suits. The racks stacked with unstitched fabrics at Khaadi stores are now accompanied by mannequins wearing stitched versions of some of the designs. Close by, these stitched options are lined up in racks, available in different sizes. Customers are able to see what the suit will look like when stitched, and they can also simply cut out the tailor and buy the stitched design.

“Stitched is the future,” says Shamoon, “and we’re researching extensively into creating stitched options for unstitched suits. It requires a lot of planning, we’re talking to customers and assessing their responses and we are considering completely changing the formats of our stores once we launch the new ranges.

“We’re particularly working out the sizing requirements of stitched lawn, which are very different from ready-to-wear sizes. It’s a lot of work, but it’s necessary. A lot of women no longer have the time to make multiple trips to the tailor and rising fuel costs are additional deterrents. The solution is to bring the tailor inside your store.”

It’s a new angle to the lawn behemoth which is, in essence, a tempestuous creature; difficult to understand, perpetually enticing and always in demand. Will the demand for lawn suffer, crippled by inflation? Will this year’s contenders in the lawn market still manage to harness customers’ interest and be around next year?

Also, have designers been able to decipher the complicated algorithm that ensures that a collection will be a hit? They’re trying, like many before them and many that will follow.

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 2nd, 2023