Instep Desk

1. As always, one is the easiest number: international fashion retail chain Khaadi – which has to be definitively part of a new fashion stream and sensibility developing in Pakistan, and is part of the Karachi tapestry - recently expanded all physical premises into super experiential stores, and among the lines it offers now are bottled pantry items. In its first couple of years of existence, Khaadi, apart from the handloom fabric, offered one simple product:

a) Hand-woven baskets, sourced from rural Sindh, enabling local women to earn decent wages

b) The original three-piece lawn jora everyone is still trying to recreate the popularity of with three-piece fabric, but 20,000-piece lace, buttons, tassels, bits, bobs joras

c) The humble kurti, the first time we realized we could actually pull off this fusion wear thing

d) Exclusively creating ball gowns for the Sind Club winter ball; if it wasn’t Khaadi, the guy at the door wouldn’t let you in till you changed into a Khaadi gown, or put on a tie, available at the front desk for a holding charge of Rs 500

2. ‘90s supermodel Aaminah Haq said back in the day, that it was tough being a model in Pakistan, because:

a) Meera ji was always trying to sabotage your career

b) No one recognized that models were actually also getting a college education

c) For every Iraj, Aaminah Haq, Aaliya Zaidi, Bibi, Sonia Mehnaz, there was one Farhan Ali Agha, and that got very depressing, very fast

d) Pakistanis weren’t used to seeing beautiful women

3. The one thing you could guarantee you’d witness most often at a Pakistani fashion show in the ‘90s was:

a) A Mughal-themed collection

b) A classical dance performance by Nahid Siddiqi or Nighat Chaudhry

c) The choreography incorporating some form of aadaab/Eastern greeting

d) All of the above

4. We all know Yahsir Waheed as one of the lawn OGs. What was his first collection to launch in Pakistan called?

a) Ai No Corrida

b) High Tension

c) Se A Vida El

d) SAW

Answers

1. C) The humble kurti

2. D) Pakistanis weren’t used

to seeing beautiful women

3. D) All of the above

4. A) Ai No Corrida