Review: Faraz Manan ups the glam factor on Day 3 of PLBW18
Bridal fashion weeks aren’t usually exciting affairs but this year’s PFDC L’Oreal Paris Bridal Week (PLBW) truly did pack in some glitzy, glorious punches.
It's interesting to note that the designer lineup transcended cities with the best collections divided between the designers who had flown in from Karachi and the Lahore-based ones. From Karachi, Nomi Ansari, Nida Azwer and Misha Lakhani put their best feet forward while Lahore wielded clout via Faraz Manan, the House of Kamiar Rokni, HSY, Republic by Omar Farooq, Ali Xeeshan and to some extent, Hussain Rehar.
Here’s another point to mull over: designers seem to be making a return to the fashion week format. Faraz Manan, for instance, had long been building his brand via solo shows in Lahore as well as abroad and last year, Ali Xeeshan had declared that he wanted to plan out a separate show rather than participate in fashion week. HSY, also, hosted a grand solo extravaganza earlier this year.
And yet, here they all were, part of the PLBW lineup.
This doesn’t mean that the trend for solo shows will die down – Faraz has several dotted about his calendar and Ali’s PLBW show was, in essence, a solo – but it indicates that fashion weeks continue to be considered credible platforms for building the business of fashion. Solo shows are tedious, expensive affairs and given how competitive the bridal market is getting, fashion week can serve as a powerful, more economically feasible, marketing tool – provided that the collection being showcased is good.
One wonders, though, if the early evening shows at PLBW are truly benefitting marketing-wise as much as the mainstream shows that are scheduled later. The earlier slots tend to be allotted to younger, more commercial brands, but media interest in them is markedly low and they don’t get the extensive reviews that the later shows do. Perhaps the Pakistan Fashion Design Council (PFDC) could make more of an effort to digitally market these shows so that they can at least make a mark on social media? Having shouldered the expense and made the effort to create a fashion week collection, these brands deserve this much, at least.
Having said this, fashion statements in the earlier slots tend to be at an all-time low. More than anything else, I feel that the catwalk serves as a training ground for these newer labels, allowing them the chance to mature and develop a signature before they can be promoted on to the more prestigious late evening timings.
Showcasing in the early evening on day three were Tabya Khan, Ahmad Sultan, Mehroze Saboor and IVY Couture. Following those was Faraz Manan’s solo show – the ‘Return of Faraz’, as someone quipped – and it lived up to all the hype that had preceded it…
Faraz Manan
It is quite evident that Faraz Manan now caters to an international clientele aside from his considerable local one. The 40-piece PLBW collection was meant not just for the high society local wedding but also for the red carpet, the film superstar, the expat community and the Middle Eastern royalty – the many markets that Faraz dabbles with so adeptly.