Fashion Pakistan Week SS21 Day Two Maheen Khan and Delphi shine!

Byline: MALIHA REHMAN

It was fashion week, simmered down, decluttered, honed into an efficient, timely model.

Small but chic, from the illuminated tree in the centre of the courtyard that was fashioned into a catwalk to the live jazz music playing in the background, Fashion Pakistan Week (FPW) had a classy vibe to it.

Coffee and pizza were served in the refreshingly short break in the middle of the shows, eliminating the possibility of fashion fatigue! Not that FPW was fatiguing. The hair and makeup, fumbling on the first day, was much better on this day, opting for the muted, pastel tones that were safe but worked well enough.

Also, a show that brilliantly started on time - 7:30pm, as promised on the invite - and ended by a chaste 9pm, allowing you to make dinner plans, enjoy post-fashion week banter and make even the most garish fashion shows more tolerable.

But even when made tolerable, even when viewed through rose-tinted glasses glossed over by the elegant surroundings, bad fashion will always be bad. Garish clothes will be garish. And the fabulous ones will be fabulous. There was plenty of mediocrity on the catwalk, some truly bad collections and then, some spurts of fabulousness that made you cheer.

Shamsha Hashwani

The strength in Shamsha Hashwani's Surriya lay in its details. The trousseau wedding-wear line came glittering with swirls of dainty, meticulous embroidery, placed prettily on traditional silhouettes. It was formal-wear but never OTT and quite appealing.

Having said this, there was nothing new to the collection. From the pastel palette that has been seen on runways a trillion times before to the floral embellishments that were very pretty and yet didn't offer a new take on design - it was a lineup that was far too safe for fashion week.

Surriya will sell well in the wedding circuit - I don't doubt it - but will it be a memorable collection? I doubt that.

Maheen Khan

The collection was called Amnesia and it came with the explanation that you tend to forget everything else when you wear great clothes. Of course, Maheen Khan knew that she was putting out a fabulous collection.

There was an easy breezy confidence to the clothes, one honed over decades of designing experience. The fabric came draped, woven polka dots moulded into careless shrugs and jackets, slinky, seductive kaftan dresses bared from a single shoulder, designs that stood out without trying too hard. She may be one of Pakistan's most senior designers but...

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