PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week is underway in Karachi from October 20-23 and will feature 23 designers.
Four day fashion week in accordance with Expo Pakistan is underway at the Expo Centre Karachi featuring 23 designers.

KARACHI:
Sous Marine
After a beautiful traditional showcase at the previous fashion week, Nikki Nina’s aquatic collection nosedived this time around. Poorly structured, ill-fitted and carrying large ungainly stains, the collection was a sad testimony to the fact that the duo needs to get their creative apprentice Mohsin Ali back. Screen prints depicting life underwater was too literal an interpretation of the marine theme and sheer tops worn over tank tops and short shift dresses serenading as kameezes with slits over miniskirts, made for a haphazard presentation. They did, however, bring hemlines to a medium length, so kudos for that. Yet, the fact that the duo didn’t adorn their own collection for the finale walk was hint enough that they too felt this was a showcase that was just not good enough.

Hala-lujah
There was a pungent stench of deja vu emanating from Zainab Sajid’s collection that was reminiscent of Zaheer Abbas’s techniques of pleating and drapes with an addition of hefty tassles, and Nida Azwer’s civilisation collection with her use of Hala pottery motifs. It was laudable that she experimented towards pret given her a strong focus on bridals and although this is a start, one had hoped that she would have been more innovative and improved on her choice of fabric.
Drawing the line
A talent that never disappoints, Mohsin Ali’s show made a social comment with a symbolic opening of models drenched in black, making way for a lone, white-clad figure to signify hope emerging from a thick crowd of despondency. Although part of the collection was devoted to depicting darker times, the black in his ensembles coalesced merrily with bursts of colour in tie-dye and screen prints for a unique amalgamation. This had to be Ali’s most commercial collection, which he created deftly without losing his signature desi kitsch. Steering away from subaltern fabrics, Ali played with hynotising stripes in colour blocks and used taweez lockets as accents for a brilliantly constructed awami collection.
Suzani
FnkAsia takes off from their wonderfully crafted ‘Sea Merchants’ collection to create a brooding winter look with their latest offering, Suzani. Although it is the season appropriate to be presenting a winter line, the fact that the fashion week was largely fixated on Spring/Summer, made Fnk Asia’s collection feel out of place. Also, while the basic motifs and general theme stays the same, Huma Adnan makes a sincere effort to create an array of statement jackets in velvet and linen for the winter. While the overall effect of Suzani wasn’t as fun and striking as her previous showcase, Adnan’s attention to detail in styling with complementary accessories like necklaces used as head bands and elf-like shoes made for an interesting presentation.
The Dilkash Collection
In her first solo exhibit, Sania Maskatiya showed her true mettle as a designer, who is urbane and classy and knows how to dress the modern Pakistani woman. Sleek and pristine in her cuts, much like Lahore’s Sara Shahid, Maskatiya proved, in this collection of block prints, balloon dresses, jumpsuits and round-hemmed chic kameezes, that she knows how to make women of her generation swoon. Impeccable draping and immaculately crafted silhouettes, with just the right amount of detailing using copper coins, Maskatiya proved that she knew where to show restrain and where to create effect.
Marachay

Newbie Irfan Ali’s 3D construction of a vibrant technicolour rural Punjab on fabric made for a fine debut if only it wasn’t so much like Mohsin Ali’s interpretation of the same theme. The 3D pockets with Rilli and blossom motifs looked too familiar in their use on Ali’s fanciful dresses, but when the same patterns were used on kimono-esque kaftans and kurtas, Ali managed to make them his own. One would like to see how this young scion manages to take a new dimension on rural heritage and how far he takes flight in the fashion scene.

KARACHI: Pakistan Fashion Week opens with a burst of cuts, colours and a tinge of predictability.

Mast Patang
Akif Mahmood gained acclaim for bringing folk heritage onto the ramp and in the three seasons that he has shown so far, he stays true to that passion of creating themed collections focused on Pakistan’s cultural roots. From a debut with his Kailash collection, Mahmood now took us to the famed rooftops in Lahore where kite festivals are held annually to commemorate the coming of spring. Haveli and kite motifs dominated a rather predictable collection of trench coats and open sherwani cover ups. It’s all well to work with themes, but it’s time Mahmood moved beyond and demonstrated some dexterity with his cuts and silhouettes to quench our doubts that he just might be a one-hit wonder.
Aurora Luminescence — The Glowing Murk
Debutante Zonia Anwaar, a recipient of the Lux Style Awards (LSA) academic scholarship, showcased a collection that played on waves and structured ruffles in shades of aqua and purple. A tad bit monotonous and ill-fitted, with the focus on detailing being the mushrooming troughs and crests, the showcase did not reveal the designer streak Anwaar is expected to display.
Neo Natives
Maria B’s Pocahontas-inspired collection of flared bottoms, jumpsuits and bubble tops — in asymmetrical cuts in colour blocks of earthy tones, scarlets and blues — was definitely her most pret-satisfying offering to date. The prints drew motifs from ancient cultures, from the Aztec to Persia, to lend the collection a cosmopolitan feel. Replete with hemp shoes and bags, the collection was a shout-out to the 1970s, with the sleek groovy look of long hair and braided headbands that was fun, supremely comfortable and ‘campus’ cool. This was a collection that will certainly heat up college grounds this summer.
Myth
Zaheer Abbas stayed true to his Issey Miyake-esque pleating aesthetic, which delved into elegant Grecian togas that sashayed on the catwalk with fragility. It was an immaculate collection with minimal details (dabka this time around, instead of the tiny bells that Abbas used previously) in a colour palette ranging from cream to burnt orange.
Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design
Hoodies, boxed broad ensembles and futuristic pieces characterised the students’ show, just like it does each year at the PIFD graduation. As always, the accessories made more of a mark than the clothes themselves, which lacked the structure and seamless fit that one expects from a designer. Yet as expected, it was the most vibrant show of the day with creative choreography (models were seen parading as puppets) and styling.
Foliaceous
Nida Azwer did jungle fever with a twist. Instead of a call to the animal kingdom, this was a call to the jungle itself — to the barks and foliage, whose textures she explored with cut-out fabric juxtaposed with flowy silk, leafy screen prints. Azwer used her signature gold embossing and her typical broad borders on the angharkhas, which she brought back in vogue from her very first showing. Overall, the designer’s collection was very safe and commercial, and is more fit for the racks than the ramp.
Published in The Express Tribune,