Bridal week has been a consistent force on the fashion calendar with each year increasingly finding its finesse and upping the ante on how designers chose to present bridals in new and differing ways. When it comes to jewellery, we’ve seen jewel houses and artisans lend their wares or create customized creations for the catwalk that are then used by designers to punctuate their latest collections. To kick off day 1 of PLBW 2017, Lahore based veteran of the jewellery game Reama Malik, whose eponymous line Gold by Reama Malik has often been a staple of bridal runways, flipped the script by opening the show with her jewels playing the lead.
What Gold by Reama Malik proved on the catwalk last night was not that less was necessarily more, but that an outfit tricked out like battle armour doesn’t always make the bride. Reama opted to showcase her incredibly diverse range of jewels against a backdrop that did not compete but helped bring the show to life.
Tapping the veteran of bridal design and one of the most respected designers in the history of Pakistani fashion minds in our industry, Wasim Khan, a collaboration was born with ensembles made of luxurious raw silk dyed in impossibly rich and saturated hues that danced in the ramp lights. From mustards to jade, burgundies to the most striking ivory, the focus of silhouette trumped the reigning trend of embroidery, embroidery and more embroidery. Reama’s jewellery twinkled and sparkled against the looks that were curated down to the last bangle. Emeralds were layered on to green dresses, reds dripped with rubies and pearls danced across whites – mixing up the usual ‘dress and contrast’ look of bridals with a monochromatic modern twist that somehow felt as heirloom and transcending of the times as the jewels themselves.
Needless to say, history is important to Gold; a pillar of Reama’s brand is the heirloom tradition of families passing on jewellery in not only Pakistani but South Asian history at large. Her jewellery is unapologetically influenced by the subcontinent’s history with it’s many rulers and with them their jewellery styles that have seen revivals through film and bridal trends that borrow from the eras. Taking a literal stance on jewels that stand the test of time, Reama’s introductory video to the catwalk was a short film about a mother passing her jewels on to her daughter on her wedding day. Her opener to the show was Mehreen Syed, a long time friend who wore Reama’s jewellery at her own wedding, and closed with Resham who was decked out in layer upon layer of golden jewels.
Bridals are such an intrinsic part of fashion and our culture; their presentation can often feel one note – it is hard to change up a genre that is so well defined and concrete in the mind of consumers. What Gold by Reama Malik in collaboration with Wasim Khan did was press refresh and shows bridals in a style that has not been done before. It was perhaps one of the strongest openings a bridal runway has seen in years and was a strong move by the jewellery veteran of the bridal industry where she asked the fashion community, critics and future brides alike to approach jewellery with the same reverence as the garments they sit on.
- Pictures by Faisal Farooqui @ Dragonfly
- Haute Promotion
