Giddy with her win as Emerging Talent – Fashion at the Geo Lux Style Awards 2021, Sarah Zulfiqar positively glows.

“I discovered her at a restaurant,” says style director Tabesh Khoja, excited and proud. “She was taking pictures in front of a mirror, and I went to her and told her she should model. She kind of brushed me off then, but she probably went home and looked me up and got in touch.”

Sarah’s prologue to this star-is-born moment just tells us that not only is she a woman upon whom good fortune shines, apparently she is blessed with incredible good sense too.

“It was me and my friend,” Sarah says a few days later. “We were supposed to go to Karachi Eat and because we changed our minds, we ended up at Swing instead.”

Sarah was mystified by her encounter with Tabesh, because she had never really thought about pursuing any kind of career in fashion. Her lifelong, dual-dream has been to study Physics and Economics, and go on to law school.

This happened almost two years ago, in January 2020, when the world was a very different place. Sarah, then on a gap year from university in the United States, thought nothing of pursuing this very out of the left field opportunity.

Her first shoot for Sana Safinaz Muzlin, took her to Malaysia, which Sara describes as “crazy”. Her first experience was an excellent one.

“Everyone was really nice,” Sarah says. It wasn’t just a one-off experience either, Sarah believes the fashion industry on the whole is a supportive network, and the people she has encountered so far have been nothing but helpful.

This, of course, stands in sharp contrast to the picture that is sometimes painted across, because of the toxicity one might find in the very nature of the fashion and beauty industries. If it isn’t a council or city divide, one might hear about models sparring, designers who may put models down, or canceling people who put across honest critique.

Fashion is also mostly a young person’s game. You might, for instance, mention Karl Lagerfeld here and say that experience counts, and you will be correct. There is no denying the fine craftsmanship of a Bunto Kazmi bridal, or a well-cut Umar Sayeed dress: we love the fresh sophistication that marks everything Sana Safinaz does. The contribution of the very first guard of fashion: Rizwan Beyg, Maheen Khan, Neelofar Shahid, Tapu Javeri, Frieha Altaf, Nabila and Tariq Amin amongst so many others, again, is undeniable. But it wouldn’t be incorrect to say that each of these people now have found and established their signature.

The generation that they might dress now, though, is quite different. It also includes mid-to-older millennials who have the purchasing power to invest in fashion, and frankly, a very niche audience for fashion as an art, and these are people who will want to see more global trends incorporated in their day-to-day wardrobes. Styles have become more streamlined, or overtly vintage and elaborate. Thrifting is a thing now.

For someone who has followed the inception, rise, fall, and many rebirths of the Pakistani fashion industry, the point we stand at in 2021 is an interesting one.

People – young girls – they look up to people like me, and if I can show them that having the color skin that we do is not shameful at all, then I’m on the right track. The systemic social and economic discrimination women face just because of skin color is something that needs to be left behind now. “When people don’t like a woman, for any reason,” she says, “the first thing they will pick on is her looks. They try to disempowerwomen by taking that away from them.

Let’s leave aside the screeching halt everything came to last year, completely changing the platforms and language anyone offering a good or service now employs to talk to their audience. The generation of designers, photographers, and models that is coming up is completely unique in how it thinks, what it believes, and what it will or will not stand for. How does that, for lack of a better term – ‘generation gap’ - fly with both sides, without causing any friction?

For Sarah, all waters have remained calm so far. “The seniors have been really accepting and sweet, Fouzia Aman and Sadaf Kanwal are welcoming and helpful.”

This perhaps could be Sarah’s own view and work ethic coming into focus.

“Most designers are receptive to ideas – if we have any input, they will listen. There are some designers who are very orthodox,” she says. “They want pictures taken a specific way. Then that becomes my challenge: ‘how can I make this shoot my own?’”

Sarah’s process, when it comes to modeling, is actual, authentic art. For her it isn’t just about the look she wants to project, or inculcating a chameleon-like quality to fit into any kind of editorial; those are qualities we would expect any good model to have.

“I Pinterest poses,” Sarah shares, without a hint of irony or embarrassment. “I have a separate Instagram account where I search and save shoots and poses I like. I don’t remember the poses, while I’m shooting, nor would I copy them; they simply serve as inspiration.

“For every shoot, and every outfit, I try to do something that would make it ‘mine’. For instance, if a top has intricate sleeves, maybe I will try to hold my arms in a more interesting way. I do a lot of yoga, so while shooting I elongate my body and position it differently.”

While this alternative career sprung up for Sarah completely by surprise, she has taken to it, presumably, like she takes on anything else. She is currently attending classes online, and it is exam time.

“I still plan on pursuing the career goals I had set for myself. After law school I plan on working in the tech industry, focusing on copyright law,” Sarah says.

Though doing incredibly well, she is also quite realistic about where the fashion road leads.

“Modeling is all about looks, right? And those will not stay forever. I need to have a plan, and I do. But while I have the time and audience, I have the chance to put across a powerful message. Like any brown-skinned girl, I have been color shamed. I have felt awful about the way I look.

“The town in the U.S. that I study in is predominantly white. I know what color my skin is, what my features are like. I am not just brown, I’m not even white-passing. But the color bias isn’t just [racism],” she says.

We’ve all faced this particular bias right here at home. Regardless of age, women’s complexion is commented upon from a young age. The culture in practice so far holds light skin as a benchmark for beauty. In a country where more than half the population is sure to be various shades of brown, this standard is somewhat baffling.

Sarah says she receives a lot of messages on her Instagram that tell her how much more confident people feel with their natural complexion because of her.

“People – young girls – they look up to people like me, and if I can show them that having the color skin that we do is not shameful at all, then I’m on the right track. The systemic social and economic discrimination women face just because of skin color is something that needs to be left behind now.”

Though she is part of an industry that trades in physical attractiveness, Sarah is well-aware of how problematic reserving clout with looks is.

“When people don’t like a woman, for any reason,” she says, “the first thing they will pick on is her looks. They try to disempower women by taking that away from them.”

As life and times would have it, a model with darker skin in Pakistan is no longer ‘exotic’. It felt ridiculous just writing that down, and again, it baffles that for years, Iraj was the only darker-skinned model who was as successful as she was. Even then, though an incredible model with unparalleled presence, Iraj was often reduced to adjectives. You could not read something without her being referred to as ‘leggy’ and ‘dusky’.

Today, labels are taking a risk and working with all skin, hair, and body types. Perhaps some will still want a certain kind of look associated with their brand, and that is alright, fashion is business, and every brand will market the image they want to establish. But we will still see fast fashion brands like Outfitters, or higher-end retail pret brands like Lulusar open up to the idea of working with faces and bodies that don’t really fit the typical fashion mold.

For Sarah, if she can be part of the change, she will employ the tools she has at her disposal to spread the message as far as her reach is. She’s enjoying the confidence and visibility modeling has given her, and she still looks forward to what’s next.

“I grew up dreaming of studying Econ and Physics,” she says. “But now I want to model too – I haven’t replaced one dream with another. I just have one more dream now.”