What’s fashion without a cause? Corporate social responsibility has become the need of the hour with fashion giants, across the globe, making it a point to let their customers know that they are not only keeping the consequences of what they are doing in check but are also socially conscious and giving back to the society. And like everything that trickles down from the West, this, too,
Amneh Shaikh-Farooqui of Polly and Other Stories, Mahin Hussain, Deepak Perwani, Khaula Jamil & Swaleha Alam Shahzada at the unveiling of CAP’s History Collection in collaboration with the designers.
INSTEPREPORT
The Citizens’ Archive of Pakistan collaborated with six designers/brands to create a limited series of products that represent Pakistan’s rich cultural history.
Karachi: What’s fashion without a cause? Corporate social responsibility has become the need of the hour with fashion giants, across the globe, making it a point to let their customers know that they are not only keeping the consequences of what they are doing in check but are also socially conscious and giving back to the society. And like everything that trickles down from the West, this, too, has been wholeheartedly embraced by local fashion brands – Sonya Battla has long been associated with Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation while The Pink Tree Company works with hearing impaired artisans at Deaf Reach. A mission along the same lines recently brought together six designers to support and promote Pakistani heritage; the project, called Product CAP: The History Collection, was initiated by the Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP) and the products were unveiled this Wednesday at the HSY store in Dolmen City Mall, Karachi.
CAP, which is now being headed by ace photographer Amean J., provided designers with a mood board featuring items, from their archives, that have remained an important part of Pakistan’s rich history and identity. These included iconic advertisements, currency, old images of monuments, vintage matchboxes and film posters from yesteryears. The six designers/brands – namely HSY, Deepak Perwani, Khaula Jamil, Maheen Hussain, Mahgul and Polly and Other Stories – were then asked to draw inspiration from the archives and create a limited series of products that resonate their interpretation of Pakistani heritage and help promote culture in a unique and fashionable way.
Designer Mahin Hussain created an interesting collection of bags that poked fun at societal stereotypes and cultural appropriation.
Each of the designers and brands stuck to their ethos and played to their strengths creating products that seemed to also coincide well with their own identity. Deepak Perwani’s colourful neon pink scarf with Lollywood figures was perfect to add some flamboyance to one’s personality while Mahgul’s Frere Hall clutch with floral embroidery made for an interesting keepsake. Our vote, however, went to Maheen Hussain who took her inspiration from ads and presented a no holds-barred bag collection that took a dig at everyone – from beauty cream manufacturers to Paul Smith for the Robert aka Peshawari Chappals.
“All of the designs were about topics that I felt were important to highlight these days,” Hussain told Instep. “There is also the ‘Dil’ that says ‘Dharakne bhi do’ which is my interpretation of live and let live because just living in this world nowadays has become difficult – the oppression and the societal norms that restrict us as women especially, put us in a bracket of stereotypes that we must follow. This is my way of telling that it’s 21st century and we need to get over it. In case of Peshawari chappals, I feel in today’s world there is a very fine line between inspiration and plagiarism and one can easily fall on either side. It was part of our history but was taken away in a flash and sold for hundreds of pounds.”
Through the initiative, Polly and Other Stories – an interesting collective of artisans working across the country – also came to the fore with an intriguing take on vintage matchboxes whereas HSY went for digital printed tunics featuring Pakistani currency through the ages. These tunics that came in both colour and a B&W combo had every potential to make it to our wardrobes only if it did not include faces of Bilal Ashraf, Gohar Rasheed, Hareem Farooq and six other celebrities like bobble-heads coming out of a gift box. While the brand’s representative, Anushe Shahid, emphasized on how these celebrities were sort of like a new currency of Pakistan, promoting it on a world platform, using iconic figures like Amjad Sabri, Abdul Sattar Edhi or Madam Noor Jahan would have lent it a more nostalgic, historical value.
Right in time for Independence Day, the History Collection offered enough fashionable options to channel our spirit of patriotism during this festive month, and ones that were different from run-of-the-mill green and white combos, with a genuine social agenda at the heart of it all. The proceeds from the sales will be used to raise funds for CAP but while the intentions are right, the route taken may not be the best option. These items ranged from PKR 8000 to PKR 18,000 making them more a collectors’ item than a product for the masses. Until and unless a larger base of consumers is not targeted, the amount of funds raised may not be as significant. The initiative needs to bring high street brands like Khaadi and Generation on board for a wider reach.
