Photography: Humayun Memon @ 18% Grey | Make-up: Nabila’s
In a world clustered with bling, labyrinthine embroideries and desi ‘gowns’, Maheen Khan has always stood apart, understanding the beauty of a finely-cut silhouette, working on fine finishings and dabbling with new shapes.
At 73, she has presided over local fashion for 47-odd years, and one could consider her something of an anomaly: insisting on setting trends and refusing to go over-commercial by retailing what she considers ‘prints that look like your grandmother’s antique bedcovers’. Her brand Gulabo continues to be young and trendsetting while the eponymous Maheen remains true to its forte with timeless, elegant evening-wear.
Even her home emulates her design aesthetic. There is nothing flashy about it. Instead, it is assuredly individualistic, clustered with statement pieces collated over the years, lovingly restored and placed at well-thought-out vantage points. There are antique tables that Maheen picked up from old bazaars, textured walls that she has painted by hand and age-old black and white photographs framed on the walls.
I meet her on a sunny Karachi afternoon and her central courtyard is resplendent in shades of turquoise and green, bordered with tall, lush palms with floor tiles sourced from her husband’s ancestral home in interior Sindh.
Maheen Khan doesn’t mince her words. She doesn’t need to. She understands fashion when so many others don’t. Her 47-odd years in the industry make her quite an authority
“Why does everything have to be about commerce and showing off your wealth?” she asks me. “What about true personal style and artistic statements? It is truly sad for a nation when fashion dies within it and that’s what I see happening. The way people dress, decorate their homes and live is now being dominated by this constant need to look wealthy.”
On that sombre note, we start our interview.
You have just opened a new standalone store in Karachi’s Khyaban-i-Bukhari while you also continue to maintain a Gulabo store in Dolmen City Mall. Considering mall rentals and the demands of stocking at two different retail points, will you now be closing the mall outlet?
Not necessarily. It is something that I am looking into. I do know that I can’t compete with the commercial design and price points in the high-street stores at malls. I refuse to create clothes that are over-the-top or make women look like boring clones of each other. A long time ago, I had a standalone ‘Maheen’ store that I closed down on impulse. I had just walked into it one day and realised that I didn’t like anything on the clothing racks because it was all too commercial. Within a week, I had shut it down. I truly believe that if I am not having fun creating something, then it’s not fashion.
Even now, if I stop having fun with it, I might close down the Dolmen City Mall store but for now, I am staying on with it.
Is it tough to break even in a mall, given that Gulabo is a boutique brand with higher pricing while many other contenders in the same vicinity are purely commercial, selling very competitively priced — though often uninspirational — apparel?
It is very tough. Sometimes I break even and am able to take home my salary, which is quite minimal. At other times, I don’t.
We keep turning towards other cultures, instead of seeking inspiration from our own icons, women such as Begum Liaquat Ali Khan and Begum Fatima Jinnah, who epitomised elegance. Instead, I see this all too prevalent love for wearing Western gowns, particularly done-to-death one-shoulder baring ones. The Pakistani figure generally doesn’t look flattering in Western cuts but this is completely disregarded.”
Wouldn’t it just be easier to sometimes dabble into more commercial territory and earn higher profits?
I don’t want to. Money is necessary but is it not everything. At 73, it’s not the kind of wealth that I am interested in. I am very fortunate to be surrounded by people from my industry who love and respect me. There are young designers that I have trained over the years who I was very strict with while they worked with me. Yet, they now take me out for dinner once a year and tell me that they wish I had scolded them more because they learnt so much from me. This love is my wealth.