Out of the 25 collections shown at the PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week, an impressive 20-plus added either elements of hand-crafted couture, well-defined trends in street wear or high-voltage drama to the value of Pakistani fashion. As that value was emitted out to the world via the media — local and international that included The Telegraph, The Times, London, Indo-Asian News Service and Elle, India — it built recognition for this country’s fashion industry as it has never known before.
Recognition, initially, is the best thing Pakistan’s infant industry could hope for and the Pakistan Fashion Design Council has been creating that awareness through commitment and consistency. It has been hosting fashion weeks at regular six-month intervals since it started last year and it has integrated Alexandra Senes, fashion consultant from Paris, in the process. Her advice is valued and her contribution is most visible in the selection of collections showcased.
The PFDC’s other big achievement has been in developing a synergy with the Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design and giving talented students a launch pad. It announced on the last day of the fashion week that five of its participating members would be selected to represent Pakistan at Pret a Porter, Paris this August.
All this is more than what the council could have hoped to achieve within a year of its fashion week initiation. That said, the quicker it ascends to certifying the business of fashion, the better as the latter equates directly to sales. At present, one would need a lot of orienteering to find/buy many of the labels that show regularly at the fashion week: Ali Xeeshan, Teejays, Sublime, Zara Shahjahan, Sahar Atif, Fahad Hussayn and Muse are some examples.
Those with the strong business models, like HSY, Karma, Nickie Nina or Asifa Nabeel, knew the ropes well before fashion weeks began in Pakistan. As for the fashion week debutantes, many are still not registered taxpayers.
Someone like Prabal Gurung, New York Fashion Week’s biggest success story this year, was stocking worldwide before he made a breakthrough at a fashion week.
“There are two ways of making it big in fashion,” The Telegraph’s Hilary Alexander spoke to Images on Sunday between shows. Alexander is one of the world’s top three most respected fashion commentators. “One is to do what Prabal Gurung did, or even Manish Arora if you like. He showed in London, Paris, all over before he just got the job as Artistic Director of Paco Rabanne. To do that you burn your boats, head off abroad, make huge investments and in 10 years you make it big if you’re lucky. It’s a huge risk.
“It’s hugely important for fashion people to have a head for numbers or a partner who is handling the business side of things,” she adds on the value of business. “You need someone who understands contracts, distribution, manufacturing and buying fabric because a designer cannot do all that and concentrate on the creative side. So it is quite tricky.”
“What the PFDC should do,” she concludes, “is perhaps build an alliance with London’s Central St. Martins and send six of its best students across every year; students like Mohsin, who has a lot of talent, and also Zaheer Abbas who I thought was very, very, very good. His cloaks were beautiful. And also Karma. I know Lahore girls like bling but if you took away the bridal bling and made it look less like a Christmas tree, you’d have fun pieces that could be worn anywhere in the world.”
While the PFDC is working towards building fashion as a business for designers and has tycoons like Avais Mazhar (Angora Textiles), Seema Aziz (Bareeze) and Shoaib Shafi (Crescent Mills) on board, what the board has achieved in terms of generating sales, exports, merchandising and employment is still to be ascertained. This year, an order catalogue (provided by Malaysian designer Eric Choong who showed at the Fashion Pakistan Week in Karachi last year) made available by designers at the fashion week would have made it easier to inquire about a garment, keeping in mind its serial number, item list, etc.
An effort the council did make was in setting up exhibition stalls for designer-buyer interaction. There were two foreign buyers at the event: Nalini Aubeeluck from Mauritius who appreciated Sadaf Malaterre’s collection as something “that women would love back home” and Maimona Tahair, a Middle Eastern buyer, representing 40 Anotah boutiques across the Gulf. This chain of stores has been retailing Indian and Turkish fashion brands for the last 30 years.
“I’m happy I’m here because some of the stuff is good and I will be placing orders with Nickie Nina, Sublime, Muse, Fahad Hussayn and Khaadi, amongst some others,” Tahair spoke to Images on Sunday after the shows. She explained that ‘placing orders’ meant buying the collections instead of ‘stocking’ them as is the practice amongst local retailers.
“I am taking some of the stuff straight off the runway and am asking designers to modify others to make them more suitable for the Gulf. Our minimum order is 200 pieces per style, per colour. We will be paying 30 per cent upon order and the remaining 70 per cent when the shipment moves.” Seeing those orders through is going to be a daunting task for most of the mentioned designers.
Putting a fashion week together is a lot of hard work and the PFDC has been making substantial efforts in the right direction. But the council also needs to start providing numbers on the business it is generating: one would like information on the Hang Ten deal announced a year ago, in which PFDC members were supposed to stock at 40 outlets worldwide. One would also want to know why the PFDC Boulevard in Karachi appears to have allegedly shut down recently.
Unless issues are addressed, the sum spent on executing a three-day event (it is estimated that Rs1.2 million per day was spent on the venue alone) will remain a mere marketing exercise. Collections will only find their way to the glossy pages of magazines and the business of fashion week will continue to remain only skin deep.
Hair & make-up by Saba Ansari of Sabs Salon (women) & Khawar Riaz (men)Photography: Faisal FarooquiEvent coordination: Rteam