Eminent couturier Zara Shahjahan hosted a private viewing of her luxury bridal collection at her store in Lahore this weekend. Known for her signature florals and flirty,
Zara Shahjahan’s bestie and rockstar, Ali Zafar, poses alongside a mannequin at the designer’s bridal collection viewing.
InstepREPORT
Zara Shahjahan hosts an exclusive viewing of Rahgeer, her first luxury bridal couture collection
Lahore
Eminent couturier Zara Shahjahan hosted a private viewing of her luxury bridal collection at her store in Lahore this weekend. Known for her signature florals and flirty, whimsical aesthetic, Shahjahan largely stayed in the news last year because of Coco, her high street brand. This private showing of her highly anticipated collection, Rahgeer, was a couture outing, with muses Amna Babar and Cybil Chowdhry embodying the Zara Shahjahan bride in her bespoke creations.
Shahjahan’s Galleria Mall outlet was festooned with flowers in full bloom, with meticulous attention to detail evident from the fact that even the outlet’s crystalline chandelier was adorned with pale pink daisies. The store premises was cleared of all other stock and converted into a viewing space, replete with aged craftsmen hand embroidering a piece from Shahjhan’s next bridal offering, set to showcase later this year.
The 20-piece collection, Shahjahan’s first full-fledged foray into bridal couture, featured a mix of luxury formals and heavier bridal wear. The palette ranged from burnished maroon to dull gold, mink and Shahjahan’s emblematic mint green and pastel pink, featuring muqaish, gota and dabka work in intricate jaals accompanied by pearl encrusted dupattas, empyrean in their appeal. Apart from one or two ensembles that were worked head to toe and meant as proper bridals, Shahjahan paired plain lenghas and ghararas with fully embellished shirts with peek-a-boo cut-outs, boxy in their silhouette and layered over bustiers to break the beaded monotony.
She used embossed organza for bottoms to ramp up the dreamy, ethereal quality of her collection and even featured a pair of crushed silk, gold pants that cashed in on the metallic trend this season. Peacocks, butterflies and cranes were recreated in Swarovski and crystals, adding to the fairytale glamour of the bespoke collection. Zara’s piece de resistance featured a beaten muqaish choli offset by a scalloped dupatta and a heavily embroidered skirt with peacocks perched on jewel encrusted pedestals. 
Speaking to Instep about Rahgeer, her first proper bridal couture collection, Shahjahan said, “Since I was doing luxury bridals for the first time I wanted to give myself ample time to do it well and not rush to meet a fashion week deadline. So instead of racing to make it to a particular platform I opted to do a shoot and a private showcase instead.”
“I’m calling this my first bridal collection despite having showcased at bridal couture week before because those collections have been luxury formals. They can double as wedding wear but were not designed as such – this collection on the other hand has been designed keeping bridal couture in mind,” she added. “My brand is retail based which is why Rahgeer is turning out to be my bridal debut in a sense.”
With PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week just around the corner, Shahjahan states she’ll return to both platforms again this year; “I will be back at PSFW and PLBW this year; we’ve already started work on the PLBW collection since it takes at least six to eight months to do a good job of it. The new collection will be very desi and ethnically inspired since we’ve done modern and contemporary styles before. It’ll feature lots of sub-continental motifs and use local materials like brocade to really bring out the opulence.”
The current collection is on display in her eponymous outlet in Lahore and it makes way for a busy year ahead for the designer. Zara Shahjahan will be showing at fashion weeks and as for brand expansion, she plans on opening another shop in Karachi.
