Hira Ali debuted with a collection that spoke of girl power and her penchant for upbeat, edgy design | Photos: Faisal Farooqui @ DragonFly
You win some, you lose some. This was the case with this year’s PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week (PSFW).
The catwalk was laid out, the red carpet rolled forth and PSFW braced itself for setting trends for the spring/summer. But, more than in previous years, this year’s event was a hit-and-miss affair. There were glitches, hitches, speed bumps and a certain lack of buzz that can be put down to fashion having gone into overkill, thanks to overexposure via the Internet.
Major fashion veterans were missing from the designer lineup and there were shows that could have had been edited out altogether. The red carpet was thronged primarily by the media and a very sparse scattering of celebrities and designers.
PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week should feel euphoric about putting out a good show despite longtime veterans backing out
And yet, the hits outnumbered the misses. For PSFW, cocking a challenging eyebrow at all the fashion dinosaurs who had chosen to be preoccupied with creating lawn or who had opted to be part of other shows, decided to make this year’s event all about hailing in the future.
There were new designers who showed definitive promise and fresh-faced models who were taller, slimmer and not too bad at hot-stepping down the catwalk. Continuing with the new system that had been tried out last year, shows were divided between two halls in order to control crowds.
Sticking to the theme of ‘newness’, the event experimented with two new formats for the catwalk: one, in which the ramp spread out in an ‘X’ and the other, a black, shiny, reflective path paved between the benches. It was appreciably an effort to keep things refreshing and at the onset it did look exciting.
Eventually, though, the new formats didn’t really work. The former was a tad too short with the models forced to walk a bit too slowly and the latter reflected off too much light, making photography difficult. Also, models traipsing down the ‘X’ sometimes could barely avoid bumping into each other. One felt sorry for them — the long hours and politics of fashion week are hard enough without having to veer here and there on the ramp.
But there was a lot that did work. Two major labels — Sana Safinaz and Misha Lakhani — opted out of showing at the event at the very last minute due to various reasons and the council had to go about reassembling the show schedules. But the show must go on, and so it did with highs and lows.
A PLATFORM FOR THE NEW
Young labels, historically, are prone to making blunders on the catwalk but this year’s batch was raring to go. Hira Ali, from last year’s Bank Alfalah Rising Talent crop, debuted with a collection that spoke of girl power and her penchant for upbeat, edgy design.
Hussain Rehar didn’t disappoint, making assertive, buoyant statements with power suits, stripes and peek-a-boo metal rings. The young designer had already been dabbling in the limelight by primarily dressing a range of celebrities and this debut proved that he is here to stay.