HSY sails into Karachi

Music blared through the corridors, shops lining the passage to Dolmen Mall’s Fashion Avenue that reverberated with some crazy rock beats and hundreds of people assembled around a raised stage made of glass, mirrors and flashing lights. You could have been mistaken into thinking that the Mall was opening its doors to its very first discotheque but no, this was HSY opening doors to his very first boutique in the vicinity!

With HSY it’s never ‘just an event;’ whatever he does has to be a larger than life experience that allows him the epithet of King of Couture. He was King of the Moment and the who’s who of fashion and entertainment had turned up to wish him well. Bunto Kazmi, Shehla Chatoor, Safinaz Muneer, Maheen Khan, Huma Adnan and Shamaeel were some of the designers one saw but the night also belonged to Bilal Ashraf – official HSY brand ambassador – and Gauher Rasheed, who joined HSY on stage and played the role of Selfie Kings to hundreds of fans. “This is the future!” Hassan exclaimed, pointing towards Bilal and Gauher, who we already know have signed up for an undisclosed project together.

With guests, fans and bystanders brewing around the stage (and I say brewing because it was hot), the store was left considerably open to people interested in the clothes. The clothes, I have to say, are not an honest manifestation of the man. When you think of HSY you think of luxury and a jet setting life taking him all over the world from Ibiza to Morocco to Los Angeles, New York and Milan. He’s every airline’s dream passenger. He also looks and dresses the part, with his buffed appearance and his impeccably international taste. His clothes, however, stay loyal to a customer born, bred and based in Pakistan with no desire to be swayed by the rest of the world. His design ethos is essentially traditional and while that’s not essentially a bad thing, one does expect a little bit of globalization in contemporary clothing. To date Ink is my favourite HSY collection because it had accents of international appeal adapted very well to a local palette.

I do believe I’ll be frequenting the store when on my weekly field trips to the Mall, hoping to find and buy a little bit of HSY’s life.