—Maria B., Pakistan’s top fashion designer
By Umer Nangiana
After making sweeping inroads into regional and international markets with its famous brands, Pakistan’s vibrant fashion industry is preparing to hit Doha as a new market. In a first such serious effort to introduce Pakistani fabric and fashion, Designer Fashion Lounge (DFL) brought some of the industry’s established big names to Doha over the weekend.
Leading the entourage was Maria Butt — or simply Maria B., a pioneer of fashion retail in Pakistan, with her internationally renowned brand Maria.B.
Starting 15 years ago with a single store in Lahore, Pakistan’s fashion hub, with only 10 workers, Maria B. has rapidly grown to have 26 stores with nine brands and are exporting its fashion and design to seven countries.
Maria herself is among the vanguards of fashion revolution in Pakistan where retail and ready-to-wear has comprehensively taken over the market. Her brand has been a sign of innovation, style and affordability.
Community talked to Maria about Pakistan’s fashion industry, how it got to where it is today, where it is headed and her plans for Doha.
“It has been a long and arduous journey but one in which I have learnt a lot. Maria.B. is at the stage from where it is just taking off to the next level,” Pakistan’s top fashion designer said.
I met her at the coffee shop of the hotel where she had just returned from a short trip around Doha. “That is how the life of a workaholic is,” Maria responded when asked if she was not tired having arrived just that morning.
A decade-and-a-half ago, the concept of turning fashion into business in Pakistan had still not germinated. It was more artistic, home-based and client-based — more couture. Pakistan’s retail and ready-to-wear started developing around the time Maria started working.
“I was 22, fresh out of college and we had these ideas. I read this book called The End of Fashion, written by this journalist (Teri Agins), who had worked in New York for 25 years, predicting how retail was the next big thing and couture dying,” Maria recalled.
“Couture is like made-to-measure and retail is ready-to-wear, it’s more affordable, it’s trendy, you have new collections every month, so that’s what I envisioned doing in Pakistan,” added the fashion diva.
Maria.B. was one of the first brands to launch retail in Pakistan — to actually start sizing, photo-shooting at that level, she added.
“I am very proud of the fact that I am one of the founding members of that entire fashion community that has now blossomed. There are so many retail stores in Pakistan these days and Maria.B. is the one that started the trend,” said Maria.
So what brought about that change?
“I think it is modernization. It is media and awareness. Fifteen years ago internationally, retail was already at a different level and Pakistan made it at the right time,” Maria said.
“We were the first batch graduating from the fashion school. We had an awareness of cuts, awareness of international trends and I think around that time the media explosion also happened, the satellite TV and cable, so fashion awareness also took wings,” she noted.
Initially, they had their problems, she added.
“We used to introduce these asymmetrical cuts and women used to come and say yeh aap ne terhi kaat de hai (you have cut this wrong). Then, for instance, we replaced shalwars with pants and they would come and say nahin hum to pants pehen he nahi saktay (No, we cannot wear pants at all),” Maria recalled, before going on to add how she and her contemporaries also took it upon themselves to educate the consumers on international trends.
“Now, whatever you make, people are aware and it is really good to see where we have come in 15 years,” she says emphatically.
An avid observer of international trends, Maria was born in Lahore and grew up in Karachi, where she graduated from Pakistan’s first fashion school.
So how does she define fashion?
“At this point in life, I think it is about your idea of style and your lifestyle, not just style. It is about your preferences; your likes, dislikes. It’s your personal interpretation of yourself to the world that is what fashion is,” said Maria.
Where does Pakistan stand viz-a-viz the region and globally?
“We are headed in the right direction. Maria.B. is a designer brand which has taken retail and designing side by side so this entire concept that fashion is a multi-million dollar business is now happening in Pakistan,” the fashion designer added.
“Our lawn is one of the best export items. We export to seven different countries. The quality of our lawn is fantastic; the designs are very sought after. Pakistan fashion industry has a very bright future,” Maria said definitively.
Pakistani fashion has huge potential not only over here in GCC countries, Iran and Iraq, but also India and Bangladesh. Talking of Europe, it is more like fusion there. So we do a lot of fusion in Pakistan also because our aesthetics are very westernized as well, she added.
About her new line of embroidered wear titled ‘Mbroidered’, Maria said the first collection sold out in just two days. Now she is planning to do six instead of the earlier planned two collections a year.
“Women love embroidery. Give them embroidery and they want more, I mean it doesn’t end. I do not know why that is so but women are just obsessed with embroidery,” said Maria cackling.
“The embroidery is done on silk that is Chinese, which we import and, we have got a lot for value addition in terms of embroidery on it,” she said of Mbroidered. It is in such big demand not only in Pakistan but in Dubai as well, she added, where they have an office.
Does she have plans for Doha?
“Initially, most of the designers would love to cater to the expats living here, especially Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. But I think the local population will have a lot as well. The kind of three-piece suits that we make is very close to what they wear at home,” said the designer.
She believes there is a huge potential for Pakistani fashion among locals in Doha as well particularly, with high-end products that are embroidery-done and other high value added articles.
“In the beginning, we would promote our ready-to-wear and our unstitched line. The unstitched line is something that is lawn and the embroidered unstitched so that women get it stitched according to size,” she explained. From there, she intends to go into the high-end embroidered market as well. “I hear that the local market demands couture a lot so I think in the future I would focus on that as well,” said Maria.
What makes fashion sell — is it good modelling, I ask her, to which she responds with a laugh
“All men seem to think it is modelling but it is NOT. I think it’s a combination. Women are very smart now. Consumers are very aware. They know what value for money is. It’s a mix of the image of the brand, the quality of the product and innovation,” she said.
“There is so much competition that unless you have something different to offer, people are not going to buy and, also, if it is value for money. I have always believed in affordability and Maria.B. is one of the few brands that is affordable; hence, its stellar growth.”
What does she have to say about new aspirants entering the industry?
“Every day, I meet youngsters and I have a design team from different fashion schools as well and there is a lot of positive energy and there are a lot of new ideas which are flowing in. We should welcome them because young blood is what you need to keep the industry going. At the same time I feel that Pakistan is a relatively small market whereas we have a huge potential of those kids being employed elsewhere around the world because they have had premium education and learnt all that is required to survive in the fashion industry anywhere so not only locally, but internationally as well, I think it is a huge potential for Pakistani industry to tap into.