A quick look at one of Maheen’s many aisles.
They’re not fully stocked and they haven’t opened officially yet. But Fashion Pakistan Lounge, after running successfully in Lahore for several years now, has finally opened its second branch in the Dolmen City Mall in Clifton, Karachi. It’s biggest competitor, the PFDC Boulevard, which was scheduled to open early this year and we’ve been seeing the display sign claiming a bold ‘Opening Soon’ for over a year (ever since the mall opened) is still under construction.
But the fashion avenue at Dolmen Mall is looking better and better. The ground floor of the mall has branches of Ego, FnkAsia and Daaman tucked away for casual shoppers. The first floor already has a hot branch of Ensemble Karachi called ONE, which is popular for having an “everything under 10,000” rule. Then the extremely eclectic Koel store offers Pakistan’s original Khaadi queen, Nurjehan Bilgrami’s organic block prints. The Khaadi store, of course, is delightful for its vast  range of ready to wear, fabric, accessories and home furnishings. PFDC’s Boulevard promises to liven things up even more and right next door, the Sana Safinaz flagship outlet, the first ever, is bound to blow shoppers away. But the waiting period is quite antagonizing.
Tradition dominates Deepak Perwani’s section for now but we’d like to see more funky, contemporary clothing coming up…
Till then, FP Lounge is a promising addition, from what one sees so far. Maheen Khan has a well stocked M line as well as Gulabo for street fashion. Deepak Perwani’s space also has the full nine yards of his label and other labels that caught the eye were Sanam Chaudhri and The PInk Tree, though racks have not been labelled yet. Let’s hope the council edits the brands at the store better than the brands that showed at fashion week. One wouldn’t want the desirable labels to be cannibalized by the unsightly ones!
