Ather Hafeez and Maheen Khan rolled into one, Mohsin is a fresh gust of wind blowing in from Quetta
Thank God the cricket fuss and fever is over and we can all detox and go back to leading our normal lives. Back to fashion, Day One at fashion week impressed and we’re all set for today’s lineup which opens with Karma and moves on to Republic, Sara Salman, Akif, Sadaf Malaterre, Rizwanullah, Asifa & Nabeel and a Khaadi Khaas finale. But let’s go back a step before we take two steps forward.
Muse
The young label once again surprised and impressed with its simplicity of design, which was clean and very focussed. Elegant in its approach of eveningwear, it presented neatly pleated shirts with wide leg trousers, covered in a shimmer of silver and gold sequins. The ensembles were made complete with delicate rope belts. Designers Moeed Yousaf and Faryal Aftab presented a contemporary chic way of dressing formally this summer.
Saai/ Sahar Atif for AHAN
Saai’s collaboration with government project AHAN couldn’t match the success of her last collection as this one didn’t quite cut the mustard. Traditional Kashmiri embroidery is breathtakingly beautiful and the showcase served a noble purpose in bringing Kashmiri artisans to the runway but it diffused designer Sahar Atif’s personal impressions as a designer. The ribbed lampshade shirts and hoops on a safe black and white colour scheme were not very fetching. It would have been better for Saai to have improvised the traditional phiran (Kashmiri kurta) along with the embroidery.
Fahad Hussayn
There’s something about Fahad Hussayn’s unapologetically macabre and dark sense of style that makes his collections so interesting. This one, inspired by mythological Portugese characters was titled ‘Moura Encantada’ and dwelt on his usual drapes and pleated silhouettes for support. Black and grey with an unexpected hint of pink, it was a strong collection that stuck to his signature. That said, establishing his signature is what it did best, while it ideally should also have established some trends for the new season.
Mohsin
Mohsin surely has what it takes to make it big in fashion. His collection may have hung onto a few amateurish elements but the young designer is metamorphing naturally and easily. It’s just a matter of time and the right mentoring before he arrives as the next best thing on the block. Here’s why.
Mohsin appears to have the sense to take what he has learnt at fashion school and apply it to clothes that can be worn by young and stylish women. This collection focused on jackets – asymmetrical, sheer, quilted and more – as it flirted with a lot of colour. Never an easy task. His inspiration, the Princess and the Pea fairy tale, brought guilded peas and charpoys to headgear and it was apparent that this creativity and energy was coming from a young and fresh mind eager to mark his territory on the fashion map.
Sublime
Though not as young, Sara Shahid’s collection was just as fresh, if not more. To reconstruct traditional shuttlecock burqas as hooded capes was an innovative idea, one that she managed to blend perfectly well with the Sublime ideology. These weren’t statement pieces created solely for drama, but the suggestion of a chic way of covering up. All about co-existence and tolerance, this is what fashion needs most.
The collection presented a diversity of shapes from strapless to the modest and it featured coral and white as spring colours and hinted at the comeback of bat-sleeves.
