A short stream of candy-coloured wrappings had emerged on the ramp at the Fashion Pakistan Week (FPW) in February, and it won its maker a whopping 500 grand as a leg up in the system that looks kindlier on capital and connections than genuine hard work and talent. Fashion weeks went a step ahead of the trend-setting game of show and tell this year, offering a platform to aspiring designers to show the industry bigwigs what they’ve got.

At the earlier scheduled FPW, this platform took the form of the Alfalah Rising Talent show, where two students from both Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVSAA) and Asian Institute of Fashion Design (AIFD) were given the opportunity to present a mini-collection of four looks each. The young designer-in-the-making, Sakina Lotia, shone the brightest among her peers, bagging the six-figure cash prize and the Alfalah Rising Talent Award. With proof of ability, some industry recognition, and a slightly inflated bank balance, Sakina’s journey makes for an interesting case study in designer startups. How do new designers go about carving a niche for themselves in the industry?

Six months shy of graduating in Fashion Design from IVSAA and presently interning at the veritable design house of Feeha Jamshed, Sakina doesn’t have any airs about her victory and very diplomatically brushes off any invitations to gloat.

"I was in awe of all the collections that were presented (at the graduate show). Everyone did such a great job. We all deserved to win," she said in an interview with Instep. Sakina emerged as the final winner of the Alfalah Rising Talent show after a multi-tiered screening process. For one, her entire class at IVSAA vied for a chance to be in the collective glare of a hundred cameras and even more eyes at FPW and beyond. Each student had to create and pitch a mini-collection, and Sakina was selected as one of the top two contenders who got the chance to show at FPW. Then, after the showing, the Fashion Pakistan (FP) Council invited the public to vote for their favourite collection in a transparent process on the social media.

Was it then just a popularity contest, simply a matter of who got the most likes and shares? "The public vote on Facebook was just one part of the process," clarifies Sakina, "I think they divided the voting very wisely. The judges’ panel also had a vote, so it made a good balance between public opinion and professional critique." Funnily enough, a quick scan, months after the voting session, through the FP Council’s Facebook album created for the purpose, reveals that Sakina lagged behind the others in the public vote; it’s apparent that the FP Council ensured that it was real potential, not simply social media pull, that decided the contenders’ fate. FP Council Chairman Wardha Saleem shared that although the public vote was a measure of how aggressively the students were willing to market themselves, at the end of the day, the jury based their vote on the creativity of the collections. "Sakina’s collection was very out-of-the-box and original, and that what we were looking for in the students’ collections. The looks she created were not ordinary, and her down-to-earth attitude is just right for a designer starting out," Wardha said.

Sakina’s collection channeled a sweetie-pie with spunk vibe, with a chaotic assemblage of saccharine layers on each model. Her shoes, wrapped and bound in fabric, were transformed into cocoons – perfect for a Spring/Summer collection, when you think of it. Her collection was inspired by the concept of metamorphosis, a remarkably prescient choice of theme, since her shining moment on the ramp was also a spreading of her wings, so to speak. Sakina explained that she wanted to go beyond creating single pieces and played with the concept of layers that could open up. "I could break down each ensemble into its pieces and wear them individually," explained Sakina, "I wanted to make something with that level of deconstruction."

Colour, of course, also played a huge role in her collection. "Colour is very important to me – it matches my personality. Sure, inserting so many at a time can be a risky choice. It can be quite difficult to balance colour and you can’t always get it right. But it’s also fun, and I got to make the kind of collection that’d make people smile."

So what’s next for Sakina? "I’m going to put up an exhibition," she says pragmatically, aware of the limitations of her sponsors’ benevolence and the nascent stage of her career. "I haven’t settled on a theme and design ethos yet, but I feel an exhibition has the perfect scale for a new designer to show what they’re all about."

"The cash prize doesn’t provide full support to a designer wanting to branch out on their own," Sakina concedes, "but it’s meant as an aid to take you further. We don’t have a lot of platforms for promoting new talent, so this is definitely a welcome change."

Besides, Sakina has no plans of going solo just yet. Like other students of fashion design, she’d like to work for a design house, for the learning opportunities that await. Citing Feeha Jamshed and Body Focus Museum as her dream destinations for a starting point, she explains her decisions simply, reiterating conventional wisdom: "You can never really learn enough."

Talk to her about the big, bad world of bosses from hell, and Sakina is unfazed. "It’s up to us to make the most of the opportunities that come our way. And I’ve had a great experience in the industry in the little time I’ve spent working here. Feeha’s a really good mentor and has always offered constructive criticism." While she’s had the mixed luxury and bane of being on her own in college, she shares that when creating fashion as a business one has to rely on others, and it’s a learning process to go about changing your work dynamic. Still, schools like IVSAA lay great emphasis on cultivating an understanding of the market and clientele, not just functioning as outlets of creativity, so the learning curve isn’t so steep, Sakina feels.

From a distance, it has to be said that Sakina appears to be an ordinary student, who had the tremendous drive to claim this opportunity of extraordinary exposure. But she’s willing to let that slide, and slog with the rest of them. That’s the second thing Sakina will be applauded for, it seems: good old-fashioned common sense.