Here’s what to expect from this year’s Magnum Chocolate Party

There’s a party about to take place in Karachi and it’s promising to be surreal, artistic and very, very brown.

Over the past two years Magnum’s clearly been pulling out all the stops, aiming to enamour the country with an aspirational ice-cream bar.

In 2015, they hosted a glitzy chocolate-inspired party and they are following it up this year with yet another event. They’re whisking together the right ingredients to ensure a grand affair: celebrities, art, music, dance, fashion and a sumptuous chocolate dessert table, of course. That’s surely enough to keep the guests happy and social media buzzing for a few days at least.

Magnum hopes so.

“We are a brand associated with prestige and through such events, we want to create spectacles that set new standards and create great mileage,” explains Shehryar Khurshid, the director of Wall’s ice-cream at Unilever Pakistan. “Last year, we delved into chocolate-inspired fashion and this time, we hope to push creative boundaries by merging art with fashion.”

Of course, Magnum has long been associated with glamour globally; sponsoring celebrity after-parties and taking famous brand ambassadors on board. Why does the brand’s Pakistani contingent prefer to throw parties?

“We are a relatively new brand in the market and it is important that we remain salient in consumers’ minds,” says Shehryar. “With time, we want to build upon an annual event that is looked forward to and builds upon the brand’s PR.”

To this end, here are a few sneak peeks at what’s going down at this year’s Magnum affair:

1) A ‘brown’ red carpet

From our experiences at past Magnum soirees, the brown carpet is fairly star-studded and trussed up with well-thought décor and heavy duty media attendance. We’re expecting some fun fashion statements to be filtering onto our social media feed through the night.

2) Some surreal fashion

Shamaeel Ansari, Nilofer Shahid, Ali Xeeshan and Faraz Manan are going to be showcasing fashion at the event, centered around the theme of surrealism. This probably means that we can expect quite a bit of artistry and experimentation but not necessarily clothes that will be wearable.

Shamaeel Ansari’s capsule line promises to be very brown, inspired by the novel ‘Like Water For Chocolate’ by Laura Esquivel. Faraz Manan delves into the bizarre architecture of Duomo in Milan while one can expect fantastical, supernatural women flitting about Ali Xeeshan’s show. With her characteristic attention to detail, Nilofer Shahid is set to present designs inspired by the work of Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalli’s surrealistic art.

It’s a prestigious line-up of designers but it doesn’t necessarily guarantee cutting-edge statements. For instance, last year’s chocolatey fashion got critiqued quite a bit for highlighting clothes that looked far too palatable to be worn.

Then again, Magnum isn’t promising wearable fashion at all – just a bit of surrealism … and about fifty shades of brown.

3) The arty side to chocolate

It’s gratifying to see an event extend itself beyond fashion’s gilded wings and Magnum is seeking to do this by enlisting an entourage of artists in a special art gallery.

Curated by Canvas Art Gallery’s Sameera Raja, artists like Irfan Hasan, Aamir Habib and Maria Khan have worked along the theme of Salvador Dali’s surrealism and created paintings, sculptures and art installations.

Again, there are bound to be plenty of references to chocolate but we have great faith in Sameera Raja and are hoping that this particular angle to the party turns out to be unique and interesting.

4) Celebrities galore

What’s a party without a bit of star power? A quartet of pretty starlets – whose names we cannot release at the moment – are going to play celebrity showstoppers in the fashion showcases.

Meanwhile, show business’ favorite blue-eyed boy Ali Zafar will be indulging in a bit of art in a special part of the show. Will he be painting with a Magnum bar? We don’t know. Chocolate bar painting may be a waste of good chocolate but it’s a trend that has been doing the rounds lately.

Also, will Ali be singing while he paints? We hope so.

5) Song and dance

Word has it that choreographer Wahab Shah has been taken on-board for two dance performances that will be taking place during the show. We don’t know how the sequences will be connected to chocolate but there is likely to be some allusion or the other. One thing’s for sure: this is one party that is going to leave us very hungry - which is why we’re quite happy about the next highlight …

6) Oodles and oodles of decadent, rich Belgian chocolate

From the floating table girls of the Magnum launch in 2012 to a wall dripping chocolate and high heels and corsets molded from chocolate last year, a Magnum party always, always delivers on a gorgeous, high on calories desert table.

Song, art and fashion may draw in the guests but there’s really no better way to hook them in than with great food. This one may just turn out to be our favorite part of the night.