KARACHI: The German Winter Market, organised by the German Consulate General Karachi on Sunday, drew a large crowd, which also became the cause of massive traffic jams in the lanes around the venue. Still, no one seemed to have a problem with that as many left their vehicles to happily walk to the place.

The handicrafts, leather items, apparel, handmade imitation jewellery, decoration pieces, toys and food stalls may have been the biggest attractions at the Market, but there were also children’s activity areas for them to draw and colour themselves, have their faces painted by an expert, play with fake snow or run around and bounce in the jumping castle. Picture booths were passé; instead, there was a pedestal to get up on and get your 360-degree panoramic image taken with your own phone. There was also a live performance by the Khudgarz Band.

Many of the apparel stalls didn’t have regular outlets as they were either strictly export or online businesses. The Winter Market was a good opportunity to check out their merchandise. ‘GIA International’, the initials of which stand for Gulnoor Ismat Atika, had some nice fleece, jersey and denim items. They said that they have their office at Sharea Faisal where one can visit their factory shop though they didn’t really cater to the local market.

At the ‘Womenza’ Pakistan stall, there were more than one entrepreneur displaying their items on separate tables. Kaneez Fatima of SK Attires had unstitched hand embroidered suits and chadors from Sindh and Punjab. She also had white on white applique work shalwars from Punjab and some Indian embroidered shalwars, which she was selling for Rs3,500 each. A stack of pretty Dhaka saris was price tagged at Rs9,000 each.

The annual event brings festivities, handicraft and much more to delight citizens

There were stalls selling ceramic decoration pieces. One stall, called ‘Clay Biscuits’, was approached by some customers thinking that they were selling biscuits only to learn that the raw form of clay before being refined and glazed is termed ‘clay biscuits’.

At another stall called ‘LO-Loralai Olives’ you buy high quality extra virgin olive oil for cooking or drizzling on salads. The oil had been extracted from different types of olives such as Arebequina, Gemlik and Frantoio. It was explained by one of the co-founders of Lo-Loralai, Ayeza Imran, that the oil is extracted from imported olives and the olive trees which they have in Pakistan, have also been imported from Italy.

A simple name for a stall was ‘Meraart’ where one could buy cushion covers, table mats, bags, pouches, clutches, etc., done in truck art. Sobia Baqai and Mohammad Farooq, the designers, who also happened to be wife and husband, were very proud of each item that they were selling, especially the cross body bags, which they had made from a special type of shiny faux leather sheet, which they said was extremely durable as they had run all kinds of experiments on it.

From fake leather to real leather, there were bags, briefcase, boxes and other luggage items in two tone shades at the ‘Kaachi’ stall. It was explained by Sharyar Qamar, the owner of Kaachi that the kind of shades and pigmentation one could notice on the items is only possible on cow leather done with wax.

The pioneers of truck art in Pakistan, ‘Phool Patti’ were there, too. Ali Salman Anchan, the founder and creative director of Phool Patti explained that they are more into making customised items so even though they do put up a stall at the German Winter Market they never sold anything from there earlier. Well, that changed this time as they had several interesting items on sale.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2025