KARACHI: With the TEXPO 2024 already in full swing at the Expo Centre, a two-day fashion week kicked off on Wednesday evening with the theme “Weaving the Way to Sustainability”, organised by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) at the marquee of a reputed hotel for the foreign guest and participants, as well as local fashion aficionados, to showcase absolutely the very best that Pakistan has to offer in terms of quality export wear.

While things largely went according to plan at the two-day fashion week, the surging crowds made it almost impossible for many serious fashion-related professionals to access the show area, and were resigned to watch the show while standing up from across the far corner of the marquee if lucky, or to sit it out in the lounge area until the end of act one, when the crowds dispersed.

A lack of proper and effective planning by the assigned event management team was largely to blame for the ensuing chaos and confusion, leaving a bad taste in the mouth and even worse impression of the visiting dignitaries, at the risk of undoing all the hard work that TDAP has undertaken to hold a flawless fashion event.

About the fashion, there can be no doubt that it stood out in terms of a brigade of veteran designers and fashion pros who took it to the next level in terms of innovative design acumen, styling, accessories and the nicely done hair & make-up and grooming of the models by the newly set-up Trio Salon.

TDAP staple Shamaeel Ansari was the opening act on Day One followed by Gogi by Hasan Riaz, also the choreographer of the event, Diner’s, Sahar Atif, fashion brand IDEAS by Gul Ahmed, PLGMEA (Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association), Yuna Hattori (Japan), local fashion heavyweights Huma Adnan, Sanam Chaudhry, and the grand finale by Sania Maskatiya.

Day Two line-up boasted the opening by Wardha Saleem, followed by The Pink Tree Company, Humayun Alamgir, the rising stars featuring fashion school graduating students, and PLGMEA, with Fahad Hussyn, Parishae by House of Amir Adnan, Michaelangelo Winklaar (Holland), Zainab Chottani and finally the Day Two grand finale act by HSY.

Holding a ramp presentation to highlight the TEXPO exhibition has always been a part and parcel of TDAP’s activity, and one that the fashion-savvy crowd eagerly looks forward to in anticipation every year, but what it should really aim for is to filter the crowds to exclude the fashion unfriendly hordes who take fashion as ‘entertainment’, and whose main aim is to ogle and stare, thereby making not only the participants, namely the female models, extremely uncomfortable and uneasy but also the fashionably attired attendees and fashionistas. It is only then that the business of fashion can truly be carried forward with serious commitment, passion and resolve.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2024