Ead enough of running around in clingy leggings and tights? Not daring to stretch out in tight-fitting cigarette pants? Getting caught in the car door with flapping culottes? Don’t fret, for a chic, cool and comfortable summer is on its way as designers and fashion gurus focus once again on the shalwar.
Fortunately, the shalwar remains a fashion staple in a sartorial climate where trends flit back and forth, happily swinging between the cutting-edge and the ghastly. Hemlines zig-zag, saris hybridise into sari pants, dupattas unfathomably swish down belted waistlines and unflattering tights cause perpetual eyesores. All the while, the shalwar — and its counterpart, the kameez or kurta — remains. Classic, timeless, and intrinsically Pakistani.
“The shalwar has never died off completely,” observes designer Maheen Khan whose high street label Gulabo features some of the snazziest shalwars in the market. “It just went dormant for a while, making occasional outings before returning to rule the roost. There is a reason why the kurta shalwar is Pakistan’s national dress — it suits our native physique. It’s also very trendy, in its many variations.”
The shalwar is back in vogue, but was it ever out?
“I remember the expansive shalwar with the wide paaincha that was extremely popular during my youth,” continues Maheen. “In the ’60s, the tight teddy shirt was paired with an equally fitted shalwar. There was the patiala, which wasn’t a very flattering option given that it made women look fatter. The half-patiala was more svelte.”
Journalist and designer at The Pink Tree Company, Mohsin Sayeed, further recounts, “Back in the mid ’70s, the ‘genie shalwar’ or harem was massively popular. Then in the early ’90s there was the ‘mullah’ shalwar, wide and worn above the ankle. There have been many more variations — the cowl shalwar, the patiala, the dhoti, the double dhoti, the tulip [with pointy tips].”
Through the annals of time, the shalwar has constantly evolved. Circa the Mughal era, the patiala shahi shalwar, was a garment with heavy front gathers worn by the royal family of Patiala. The Pathani shalwar with its intricate semi-circular cowls hails from the country’s frontiers but has since been adapted to the wardrobes of men and women living in urban cities.
In the ’70s, Teejays created retail history in Pakistan and revolutionised the shalwar kameez in the process. “Teejays is to shalwar kameez what Levi’s is to denim,” Tanveer Jamshed famously declared. The designer tweaked the androgynous awami jora or shalwar kameez, popularly worn by Bhutto and embraced wholeheartedly by the nation.