STYLE: THE SHOW MUST GO ON
The third edition of Hum Showcase wrapped up a long spate of fashion events. It’s been a hectic season, with one event following close on the heels of another, and organisers racing to lay out the catwalk before Ramazan begins and fashion week season ends — only to be taken over by Eid fashion season, of course. For a country that is perpetually teetering at the edge of economic crises and encumbered by an ever-expanding lower class, we do boast a constant high-end fashion scene.
But look beyond the glitz and the joie de vivre and you’ll realise that, while this booming demand for fashion may be for an exclusive niche, it is actually fostering the economy in many ways: providing jobs, sustaining indigenous artisans and building upon a positive image for Pakistan.
This, in essence, is the purpose served by our parade of fashion events. They further the business of fashion. Hum Showcase may not be a fashion week — it has never claimed to be — but it, too, provides a platform to designers where they can bloom, should they have the capacity to do so, and attract clientele.
Despite coming at the tail-end of an exhausting line-up of fashion events, the third Hum Showcase made its mark with attention given to the catwalk and venue. It was helped by the steady curation of Rizwan Beyg who did his best to prevent aesthetics from fluctuating too much
For the past three years, it is a platform that has consistently featured a mix of designers, the veterans and the fledglings, the couturiers and the high-street brands, from its home base in Karachi as well as from Lahore. This is the case with all fashion weeks but there are certain factors that work in Showcase’s favour.
For one, it is a show orchestrated by one of the country’s biggest television networks and, therefore, is not entirely dependent on the magnanimity of sponsors. Instead, since the show will later be televised, slotted for long weekends and festive occasions, considerable attention appears to be given to the catwalk and the venue. However, the calibre of fashion on the catwalk could have easily fluctuated in TV’s generic waters except that there is another factor that hasn’t so far allowed this to happen.
This brings us to Showcase’s second asset: the presence of veteran designer Rizwan Beyg as its director. Rizwan is one of the country’s fashion pioneers and his aesthetic has always been in a league of its own. With his name up in the credits, he has so far ensured that Showcase is a curated offering. This year, like in the past two years, there were plenty of well-known, popular ateliers — and some promising debut shows — in the event’s repertoire.