By Muhammad Asad Ullah

The oozing allure and grandeur of 8th Pakistan Sunsilk Fashion Week, kicked off lambently with designers illustrating their latest collections and awe-impelling fashion ruffles and glory plodded over for months. It won’t be erroneous if we call the fancy footwork that goes front the house only half the story.
Production 021 (Backstage Management) — owned by the graduates of Asian Institute of Fashion Design — Aamir and Muneera Lakhani remains the leading and fastest growing Event and Fashion Management Company in Pakistan. Production 021 can also be imputed for the smooth run at International Fashion Festival Doha and 3rd Hum Awards-UAE.
Let’s go over the glitz and glamour spread.

Day-1
Fahad Hussayn opened the show with his “Democrats Midsummer 2015”, giving prominence to digital prints on chiffon, organza and silk and also Fahad Hussayn’s signature hand embroidery couture. Fahad seemed to be bashful with appraisal of cuts and silhouettes.
Second to showcase, the aesthetic yet effortless shaped wearable collection, Misha Lakhani’s “Modern Mughal” was goaded by the melding of modern and Mughal era, using the myriad fabrics of silk shantung, organza and linen sewed up with lace embellished with pearls, piping and bejeweled belts and gladiator flats.
Misha’s collection was followed by Zonia Anwaar’s “Zambezi”. An ode to Africa’s Kenyan Masks, Zambezi was finely stitched in organza with metal pieces and wooden orbs accompanied by tampered silhouettes and digital prints. The practically appealing clothing line was with seasoned cut lines and trends, but hey, you’ve got to love the versatility!
Natasha Kamal’s debut collection and love of couture than ready to wear “Le Nouvel Espirit” was inspired from the 1920’s Art Deco Movement. With the regal accessories the couture paired with detailed dominating geometric shapes based on silk, chiffons, organza, and net with gota, cut-work and appliqué presented the tangled tops with pencil skirts, but as Hina Khawaja Bayat walked sophisticatedly in gold shimmer saree, it was an epitome of elegance and glamour.
Day 1 ended on “Chambeli” — the collection just a white on white trend featured with chiffon, organza, French laces and real pearls seemed simmered with eastern and western cuts fused with the Bridal elements by Nickie Nina.

Day-2
With earthly hues and colour palette of beige, green and coal balanced with white on the fabric of denim, luxe silk, organza and mesh, the leading High Street Brand Generation opened the second day featuring Pakistani traditional shararas, shalwar, kameez and vaaskats re-innovated with the modern touch.
With the mukesh, cut, gota, net and mirror work Generation team did not bash to beautify their cage clutches with the green bales and leaves. Generation was followed by Shirin Hassan’s “Rock n Rolla”; the splendid showing of spirited hues which was blasé and badly constructed — fading out due to the mish-mash of the elements.
Rayya Gilani’s, “Vintage Luxury”, inspired by the luxurious Victorian Era left no stone unturned to blow the critics with the contemporary yet beautifully tailored silk, organza, net and lace featuring straight pants, high waist skirts, jackets, floral and digital prints and the straight silhouette.
With luxe being the order of the first half of the day, the most powerful and breath-taking was “Porcelain Dreams” by Beech Tree created in blue, gold and white inspired with exemplar eastern motifs. With intense complete look of each straight piece of jackets and kimonos showcased with cigarette pants was intensified with beadwork, mukesh, geometric and floral patterns
“Discipline and Drama” by the designer label MUSE featured heavily pleated skirts, flared long pants with cropped tops and metal belts beautifully, followed by the Saira Shakira’s “Electic Retro” based in silk, chicken, organza and cotton with contemporary cuts, detailing and needle work merged with lace under skirts in pastel hues. It was clean, present-day and a confident collection unlike Zara Shahjahan who ended up Day-2 with a total put-off collection that remained unfit for the glamorous run-way — the merger of floral patterns with desi ornamentation.

Day-3
After two days of chutzpah, Day-3 was totally allotted to textile brands. Gul Ahmed, the leading textile brand opened the show with a collection nothing we haven’t seen before. Gul Ahmed known for its lawn, elegantly styled crop tops, jackets and traditional skirts needs to add strength to the label’s repertoire over and about fine fabric, prints and disparate cuts and vogue.
The second to showcase was “Pakistan United” by Shubinak — the iron-free collection in earthly tones of beige, green and white with pure Pakistani cotton embellished of hand embroidery, appliqué work, stone work and Sindhi Ralli patchwork, accessorised with bohemian accessories and feather headbands.
Next up was Warda Print’s “Chromatic Ecstasy” homage to Chroma, voyage with tangerine orange, crimson, yellow and blues; the cynosure was on the cuts and designs, too. Inspired by Eastern Prints and Ornaments, the collection bragged an ardent yet perturb blend of motifs and cut lines. The print-on-print nemesis faded the conviction of the collection terribly.
Alkaram was next, featuring a successful print-on-print silhouette with the fabrics of jacquard, lawn and chikan kari. The showcased pants, jumpsuits and frilled fashioned skirts were tailored in assorted colour hues. The bright, colourful vogue grabbed everyone’s attention as renowned music personality Mustafa Zahid walked the ramp while the following Harmony’s “Summer Rhythm” faded out with its hotchpotch designs of silk shirts and short tops, straight cut skirts merged with black and white veils and accessories apart from the high-hue kurtas perfect for the Friday prayers for men.
The third day ended with the fail floral prints of House of Ittehad’s collection featuring odd stripes clothing intensified with strange colour combinations. Inspired by different contemporary cultures, the prints fell short for women in terms of vogue, embellishments, cuts and tailoring…

Day-4
The final day of PFDC was worth beholding, featuring the High Street Brands opened by Arsalan’s “Devolution Chic” but which failed to get noticed. Inspired by Graffiti worldwide, Iqbal assembled the peevish jumpsuits and palazzos tailored in chiffon and interlocked with kimono silk jackets. Next up was Erum Khan’s “The Unattained Shine”, neatly tailored in white colour palette embellished with patch work, antique katdanna and 3D Flowers. A work of performance art and no mistake, it was a show to remember.
Following Khan was Chinyere’s “Mijaz-e-Shahana” featuring angarkha-peplum tops gilded with cigarette pants, boxy sleeves and jump suits and short sherwanis for men — a perfect snapshot of the way we want to dress right now!
Hassan Riaz’s “Contained Shadows” collection featuring cage crinolines with corsets will surely test his ability to bring it from the ramp to the rack and designers like Hassan Riaz are the reason one wishes to have actual buyers in Pakistan as conflicting to the retailers.
Followed by Hassan were Sana Safinaz’s intense hues of black and white featuring clean line and cuts. The team engulfed the style of International acclaim — obi belts into their collection with the display of two entirely different styles.
Following Sana Safinaz was Omar Farooq’s “Que Sera Sera, featuring marble prints and smudged flowers styled in a very spring summer manner using suede bags and overcoats, tailored in suede, linen, chiffon, cotton, cotton silk and wool silk.
Omar Farooq stole the show, when Alain Delon of Pakistan — Fawad Khan walked the ramp with the-in flower print coat with black trousers — a classy appeal while the day’s fail attempt was Syeda Ameera, who couldn’t draw a line between bridals and prêt collection.
Amir Adnan and Huma — the husband-wife’s collection  “Symphony” — was inspired by Kashmiri crafts with fabrics, prints and embroideries in silk, cotton and linen with bright hues of blue, green, ivory and magenta. It was a unique merging of outfits with the rich textures of Jamewar.
Sania Maskatiya appeared next with ‘Paristan’. Her magnificent colour palette complimented the cuts while the beads and sequins embellished were all set as the imagination of magic, shimmer and glamour. The innocence of motifs took to the ramp with a bow.
As expected, HSY was the finale of the night! The collection was titled “INK”, inspired by his travels to Asian countries; their traditional dyeing techniques were perfect to end the Fashion Week with.
His hues of blues were quite attractive while the wide belts added a drama to his collection. The men’s wear was about hints of yellow that emitted classical appeal. His cuts and designs were wearable and relatable to any woman dashing around in a city — a nice touch!