KARACHI At the ongoing Fashion Pakistan Week-2, things seemed to have taken a turn for the not-so-exciting on day four. Although there were some good collections shown but there was not any that could be described as avant-garde or even truly exceptional.

Maheen Khan opened the evening with her collection that took its inspiration from one of her favourite films, 'Murder on the Orient Express'. She had used the style and fashion of the 20s to create the garments in her collection. They carried her signature stamp and were minimalistic, sleek and flowy with minimal volume.

The colour palette of her collection was predominantly focused on creams, charcoal grey, beige, deep purple and black. She showed longer lengths in her shirts, an interested feature that she added to them was a frontal knot on the lower front side, pleated, delicately layered necklines. Maheen also showed several off-shoulder large shirts over shalwars as well.

A designer that believed in showing clothes in almost every colour was Aziz Ali. In his collection titled 'Pristine Opulence' he showed colours from bright yellow, red, black, orange, purple, pink, blue and what not, his outfits were one frilly piece after another with large flower details printed on it. It looked very tacky. There was no construction, proper design or a mature thought process behind the collection.

One of the two design labels to pay tribute to an art icon was Pashmina Ahmed and Faatina Khan's (from the fashion label 'Trial and Error') collection called 'Mona Darling' which they dedicated to the Mona Lisa. They showed a western wear collection that was not unlike what they had shown last year. Their collection had screen printed faces of Mona Lisa on the dresses and the shirts. Some of the printing also included that of the painter, Leonardo da Vinci.

Sri Lankan designer Fouzal Hameed showcased a menswear collection titled 'Dress to kill'. He showed very crisp and clean cut suits. Several of the prints he used were interesting such as the graph print in one of the suits and a checkered tie. He also used subtle embroidery on jackets and horizontal pleating details on shirts. Towards the end of the collection however, he began to add a shiny, glittering fabric for his garments, which, let's face it, does not work in menswear.

Zaiena Haider showed a collection titled 'Realm of Fantasy' which was interesting in its use of bold colours and prints merged and tailored together in one outfit. Her collection stood out with the predominant use of digital prints in her fabric - a trend that is all the rage abroad.

The other designer who paid tribute to an art icon was Deepak Perwani and he dedicated his collection titled 'Amrita' to Amrita Shergill. He used her portraits (and that of several other individuals) screen printed on the fabric that he used and created dresses and saris from them. Designer Rehana Saigol also walked the ramp for him.

Perwani presented an interesting menswear collection in which he had the male models wear sheer silk dhotis and kurtas. He also included drop-crotch pants with folded pockets on the side.

Other designers who showed on day four of the fashion week included Sania Maskatiya and Abida Dada for Chamak, Datch, Sanam Agha and Tayyab Bombal.