Word: fashion
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...before for unspecified reasons, reducing the organizers to a "shoestring budget," and prospective foreign buyers were asked not to hazard the journey. But cancellation was never an option. "When was the last time something wrong was not happening in this country?" Deepak Perwani, the longtime enfant terrible of Pakistani fashion, says with gruff insouciance. "I mean, really. Life...
Rather than paralyzing their ambitions, many of the designers drew inspiration from their troubled surroundings. Opening Fashion Week was Sonya Battla's collection, Conflict in Karachi. It was a multilayered tribute to the city's women, using a mixture of bold, in-your-face designs embellished with metalwork. Necks were wreathed in spiked collars, and there was a chastity belt defiantly unzipped...
Maheen Khan's work, presented earlier this year at Milan Fashion Week, was a colorfully elegant tribute to the people of the once-Taliban-ravaged Swat Valley. "It was all about those people who sacrificed their livelihoods for our safety," says Khan. "The embroidery was all Swat-based." The hats were tastefully tweaked versions of those worn in Chitral, in the northwest's mountains...
Khan's collection was also a reminder of the origins of Pakistani high fashion. In 1972, she triggered what she calls a "minor revolution" with a couple of arresting alterations to the national dress. "Back then, the shalwar kameez - baggy trousers and long tunic - was basically a glorified pajama suit," she says, shuddering slightly at the memory. "Women would put it on every morning and then sleep in it. I thought this was gross." Khan replaced the shapeless shalwar with Capri trousers, and changed the dupatta (a large multipurpose scarf) into a Western-style neck scarf. "I've never looked...
...lingering threat of bombers kept foreign buyers away this time, but Fashion Week still lifted Karachi's spirits. "People have cheered up all over the city, saying how cool and great this is" says Beyg. "I see it as therapy, therapy for a wounded city." And in six months, Fashion Week will be back in Karachi to try do it all over again...