Rizwan Beyg talks ‘Showcase’!

We’re headed into an incredibly fashion heavy April, which will begin with Bridal Couture Week and will end, technically, with ‘Showcase,’ an exciting new platform that will flaunt the very best of Pakistan’s design, craft and fashion creativity. Spearheaded by Rizwan Beyg, whose aesthetic we cannot challenge for even a second, Showcase, as an event may be just what the doctor ordered to get creative juices flowing through the fashion industry. The industry, at large, has been suffering a wave of stagnancy triggered by weapons of mass design destruction and according to Beyg, “Showcase is an apolitical, non partisan platform that will encourage designers to create real fashion and not something that you put in a mall.”

“We’re trying to create something that doesn’t have an agenda,” he said, when I called to catch up on details. Showcase will be held in Karachi between April 20-22. “My experience with Hum Awards was fabulous and when they came to me I was onboard.”

Beyg furthered that Showcase was not conceived to challenge or replace fashion weeks, as “fashion weeks must be council-led,” he insisted. “This will be a platform celebrating the craft, the creativity and the design process. We’re trying to make it as good as possible,” he added, informing us that international models were being flown in for the show. “The content will be a mix of retail, textile, couture and pret.”

A fashion show is always as good as its content and with Beyg onboard, Showcase will undoubtedly manage to rope in some of the most talented names in fashion. Unwilling to reveal too many details at this point, Beyg did share that he would be one of the names showing.

“We’ve selected an interesting palette of names,” he offered. “We’ve chosen people who’re on the larger canvas of fashion; there are also new names, big brands. We’ve picked a lot of good, experienced people as well as new people. I can promise you an A-class show and that our objective for it is to be fashion forward. But I can’t design everyone’s collection,” he brought expectations to a real level. At the end of the day the show will be as good as the collections put out and one can only hope that the names on board will bring their best game to the arena.

Who were the new, younger designers who had impressed Beyg, I asked?

“Zaheer Abbas, above everyone,” he replied without hesitation. “There are very few people who have his finesse and his craftsmanship is excellent. Then there is Mahgul, who’s also very savvy. She’s got her finger on the pulse.”

At the end of the conversation, the veteran made it very clear that he had come onboard this venture as Artistic Director and he had a vision that he wanted to bring to life.

“I’m just laying down the premise of Showcase,” he said. “I don’t want to own it or control it. No one is infallible.”

• Featured image courtesy Express Tribune