To spin a fashion week, a credible one with well-edited content, on schedule, year after year, can’t be an easy task. It must take endless patience and tenacity to pick and choose collections, to decide on daily schedules and settle designers’ demands for opening and finale slots and then, to tackle the equally exhausting task of allotting seats to an audience that comprises of the city’s crème de la crème, all of whom firmly believe that they belong squarely in the front row! To single out possible avenues for business growth and accordingly invite in the right contacts, to attract in local media and possibly, a faction of the foreign press, to ensure steady sponsorship from the corporate world …. There’s no doubt about it, beyond the glitz, glamour and brouhaha, fashion weeks are Goliathan, unwieldy monsters.

Credit, then, goes to the Lahore-based Pakistan Fashion Design Council (PFDC) for tackling that monster head-on, to not just have had the sporadic fashion week for the sake of fame and glory but to have built their event, brick by brick, into a regular, highly-anticipated platform. And from the very onset, giving the council direction and propelling it further has been their powerhouse Chairperson Sehyr Saigol.

Sehyr, of course, is an indelible part of the PFDC. She doesn’t need to announce it at all — in fact, she’s characteristically reticent at giving interviews. She’d rather talk business with the distinguished guests she often invites in to the events, letting the council’s other stalwart members pander to the cameras and the spotlight. She’d rather sit there in the front row daily, making assessments and observations and cajoling her choreographer, HSY, to "end the show on time". Spearheading a four day long mammoth fashion week, twice a year, is a Herculean task and as a result, she’s even lately ceased to showcase her label ‘Libas’.

"It’s like organizing four weddings in four days," she jokes to me. In truth, there could be no better Chairperson to the council. Sehyr’s been the queen bee of fashion in Lahore for the longest time, dressing an exclusive niche clientele through her clothing label ‘Libas’ and launching the fashion glossy ‘Libas’ 27 odd years ago. She’s got the wherewithal to make things happen, with feelers extending amongst the country’s who’s who as well as in those promising markets across the border, in India, Middle East and beyond.

More importantly though, she’s a woman with a clear-cut vision for fashion and has the intelligence, experience and grit to see it fulfilled. To lead a council teaming with talented young designers, representing a burgeoning industry that could eventually yield huge revenues for the country, is not everybody’s ball game. But it’s one that Sehyr plays exceptionally well.

For the love of fashion

"When we first started the council, we were just likeminded people, working towards a schedule and following an ideology," recalls Sehyr. "Back then, people would consider hiring in a musician or staging a fashion show as a form of entertainment at their parties. The PFDC wanted to assert that fashion was not entertainment and could be a serious business."

And the PFDC proceeded to do so. The council’s chalked out a schedule for their fashion weeks and to date, has been following it to the tee. It’s run the gamut from a hit-and-miss designer lineup back in the early days to pret and bridal weeks that now feature some of the country’s most prolific names. The corporate bigwigs that initially sponsored the event – Sunsilk for the pret-based fashion weeks, L’Oreal Paris for the bridal weeks and a plethora of other distinguished partner brands – are still there, basking in the additional media mileage and accolades as the council grows from strength to strength.

In the past, there’s been an acclaimed Hilary Alexander of the Independent sitting in the front row at PFDC’s fashion week, Alexandra Senes from Paris attending the events and proceeding to arrange for designers to take part in the Parisian Carnival de Couture. There’s also a Minnie Bindra who regularly flies in from India and earmarks collections that she wants to stock at the PFDC Boulevard store in Delhi. Within Pakistan, there are PFDC Boulevard stores in Karachi and Lahore, stocking mainstream labels and providing free space to designers to exhibit hot-off-the-ramp collections right after fashion week. Yes, they’re still ending at unreasonably late hours but the PFDC’s fashion weeks have come a long way. Starting off from an event taking place in a tented space at Lahore’s Royal Palm, the council’s upcoming tenth fashion week is going to unfurl its red carpet at the dominating Lahore Expo.

Sehyr Saigol has made it happen, assisted with a consistently loyal team: Saad Ali, as CEO, and designers like HSY, Kamiar Rokni and Maheen Kardar Ali immediately spring to mind. In an industry rife with egos and self-promotion, she maneuvers the PFDC’s many cogwheels, magically persuading them to shrug aside personal vendettas and work purely for the promotion of fashion.

"It’s hardly been easy," admits Sehyr. "There have been times when I have been accused of favoritism. Designers with their eyes on the grand finale have gotten riled on being refused. I know that people feel that I am partial to HSY because I often let him take the finale slot at fashion weeks. I ask them, is there anybody else who can guarantee the same kind of star power as HSY? Can anybody else draw in the crowds like he does and stop them from leaving as the evening gets late? HSY exudes glamour and any other designer who can vouch to have the same appeal is welcome to stage a grand finale at the PFDC’s fashion weeks."

"In fact, all the designers in our fashion week line-up are selected for definite reasons. Some are young but promising, others have strong retail brands and then there are the veterans who never fail to win rave reviews and teach the younger designers a thing or two." While Sehyr doesn’t say it, designer Rizwan Beyg immediately springs to my mind, whose hit truck art collection from  last year is yet to be translated to retail. Rizwan is featured in the upcoming fashion week also and his collection is expected to be spectacular once again, though it may or may not boil down to actual sales.

With time, Sehyr accepts that designers have become more compliant to the PFDC’s decisions. The council has an undeniable stronghold over the fashion week circuit and designers would rather show in the slot allotted to them than not show at all.

"We’ve divided each day into high-street or voile shows during the day and designer prêt in the evening. I feel that each strata is distinctly different from the other and can’t be bunched together into a single show. I’ve refused umpteen cash offers from participants wanting to buy in their way to the evening platforms. I can’t, in any way, forgo the PFDC’s credibility even if it means additional finances. And rather than be miffed, people have come to understand my point of view and make do with whatever slot is fairly allotted to them."

"They have also perhaps realized that I am truly working for the council and don’t have any personal gains in mind," says Sehyr. "I even stopped showcasing my own label simply because organizing two fashion weeks every year took up all my time."

Nurturing young talent

This time, though, Sehyr’s ‘Libas’ returns to the catwalk in a collaboration with young designer Mohsin Ali. "I understand that many young designers have potential but don’t have the experience or finances to launch out on their own," she explains. "It’s important for fashion houses and textile giants to nurture local fashion. We need to promote our own talent rather than hire a Bollywood actress to garner sales. Working with skilled artisans at a seasoned design house or with a textile magnate hones designers for their careers ahead. This is why I have taken Mohsin on board. He’s exceptionally talented and with time, can easily carve a niche for himself."

That’s Sehyr for you. She may be strict and unyielding at accepting lackluster collections, but for designers with promise, she is exceedingly kind and willing to go the extra mile. "There are times when I sketch for them or teach them the right way to create a pair of pants or a bustier. There is a designer label which is doing very well commercially that I have successively kept rejecting because I felt that it wasn’t up to par. Now, I have finally allowed it into the upcoming fashion week but only because I have kept a stringent eye on the collection, editing out unnecessary elements and monitoring the color palette. It takes time and effort and I invest it into designers that I feel are willing to learn and work hard."

Retail’s the key – the PFDC steps back

More than ever, though, Sehyr’s objective has turned to guiding designers towards fashion retail. In the past, she’s brought in media and stockists from abroad and worked alongside the government-based TDAP in the hope of building a foreign market for local fashion. She set up the PFDC Boulevard store in Delhi which is apparently doing quite well with designers stocking in racks as well as flying in to hold exhibitions where they are only required to pay a fixed percentage of their sales to the PFDC.

Beyond India, though, Sehyr observes that the PFDC needs to step back from promoting international trade and address the much more pertinent aim of encouraging local retail. "It’s become obvious that our industry is not ready to take on the global market. Sadly, most of us aren’t even ready to supply complete collections locally," she says.

Cases in point are the PFDC’s own very disparate stores in Lahore and Karachi. The Lahore store may boast the best of Sublime by Sara Shahid or Elan by Khadijah Shah but the limited choices at the Karachi faction are hardly enough to draw in crowds. "I have seen designers do fabulously well at the PFDC Boulevard store in Lahore but only send in meager capsule collections to our store in Karachi," observes Sehyr. "They either lack the capacity to produce more stock or simply don’t have the business acumen. The council can only provide them with opportunities to stock at mainstream locations. They themselves have to make the effort to make sure that their clothes sell off the racks."

A single platform for fashion?

Fostering the Karachi-Lahore conumdrum, of course, is the fact that certain designers refrain from showing collections in both Karachi and Lahore. I have, in the past, observed PFDC’s regular designers profess to stay true to Lahore simply out of loyalty to their council. In a market where the main clientele are often the affluent attendees at a fashion week, business naturally suffers when designers restrict themselves to a single city.

"Designers may feel more comfortable working with the PFDC’s established platform but I have never restricted them from participating in other fashion weeks," professes Sehyr. "In fact, the PFDC has only recently extended a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to the Karachi-based fashion council, Fashion Pakistan (FPC), inviting them to join platforms so that both councils’ designers can show at each other’s events. Both councils are working for the benefit of the fashion industry – why not do it together?"

Uptil now, Wardha Saleem, CEO of FP, is very positive about the MoU but feels that it is far too early to comment on it. Needless to say, if and when both councils reach an understanding, it could be a long-awaited, much needed change for local fashion. The PFDC may be much more established but based on their last fashion week, the FPC is certainly getting stronger. A Spring/Summer fashion week in Lahore and an Autumn/Winter contingent in Karachi, perhaps? It makes absolute business sense.

And Sehyr Saigol, above all, is thinking business for fashion – not personal glory and not even personal revenue. She’s willing to make alliances, amend business plans and train aspiring designers extensively in order to move the business forward. Fashion means business; the PFDC has managed to clarify this over the years. Now, Sehyr Saigol, with her vision and determination, is prepared to snowball it into big business.