Pakistan fashion week pushes back boundaries

A call to prayer echoed over the red carpet. The celebrity guests and socialites of Lahore lifted their diamante stilettos through the scarlet pile, careful not to trip as they showed lipsticked smiles – and bare shoulders – to the flashing camera bulbs.


Pakistan’s first Government-endorsed fashion week finished yesterday. There is hope that with it will disappear decades of the government repression that had previously forced the scene underground.

“We have seen the fashion world in Pakistan evolve in recent years,” said Aamna Isani, a freelance fashion writer. “Ten years ago we weren’t allowed to say the word 'fashion’. We had to go for a ‘cultural event’ with clothes.”

Today, the Ministry of Commerce supports the festival, the Pakistan Fashion Design Council is Government-recognised, and even Pakistani TV crews happily meet gleaming and unveiled faces.

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A triumph for young liberals, the event was also a red rag to those who protect conservative Islamic values with an iron fist. Inter Services Intelligence and the bomb squad were standing by to keep out haute couture’s uninvited guests.

“Half an hour before the show we were getting death threats and phone calls and all kind of blackmail,” says a model, Meesha Shafi, 28.

“They had our names. It’s very scary. Half of us would be like, ‘we have to go home, yes we love our work but it’s a fashion show. I’m not going to risk my life for it.’ But half of us were like ‘this is exactly what they want.‘ You can’t let them scare you.”

“In times like this it’s a very difficult thing to put on,” says Hassan Sheheryar Yasin, founder of the Government-approved Pakistan Fashion Design Council (PDFC) and designer of tonight’s grande finale collection.

“But it encourages people to come up with a Pakistani sensibility.”

Two months ago suicide bombs exploded in a nearby market, killing 38 people and injuring over 100. In May last year, another was targeted at the Sri Lankan cricket team.

Another, in August, at a university cafeteria in Islamabad, was believed to be deliberately targeted at young women, many of whom are increasingly comfortable in sleeveless tops and knee length skirts.

But despite the increase in civilian attacks in recent months, Lahore was willing to risk it in the name of fashion.

The week carried an electic message: slash backed T-shirts read 'Education not bombs' and 'Stay alive 2010' while on the sidelines one chest was emblazoned with the slogan 'Long Live McQueen'.

The catwalk was awash with layers of tulle from Paris, graced with flowing silk kameez, spiked with tight leather, and adorned with intricate embroidery from the Swat valley.

Asymmetrical bias cuts slashed up to the thigh shimmied alongside swirling chadars and wedding saris. Elaborate patterns added an Eastern feel to trouser suits.

Tops were tight and skirts were short: flesh was conspicuously on show. This, the voice-over announced in an American accent, was fashion for Pakistan’s “modern” woman.

“Now that women work like men they must dress like men,” said Muniba Kamal, fashion editor at the national daily The News. “I wouldn’t go burning our bras though. We need those.”

This week’s shows are viewed only by Pakistan’s liberal elite. Mrs Isani says that as the glitterati enjoy haute couture, the middle classes can buy cutting edge garments off the peg. But she sounds a note of caution.

“I think we’ll really evolve when we have women on the catwalk with purdah too,” she says. “It’s an irony that we’re OK with navels and arms now, but not with the veil.

"80 per cent of women in Pakistan wear the veil and many want to. They’d want to even if they had the option. They are pushing us away and we are pushing them away.”