Talking Pakistan’s Fashionable History with the co-authors of the country’s first book documenting the fashion industry
Fashion is not only a form of expression but is an integral part of a culture as well. Therefore, whenever a society’s in-depth analysis is done it is not possible to ignore its fashion. Even hardcore historians will at some point in their narrative will refer to the fashion of the period under discussion. Therefore, documenting fashion is important.
In Pakistan a lot of discussion revolves around the importance of highlighting our culture as part of promoting our soft image but not much effort has been put in covering the fashion industry in this mix. The first step towards changing this has been taken by the journalist duo, Mehr Fatima Husain and Saad Sarfraz Sheikh with their first of its kind coffee table book, Pakistan: A Fashionable History.
Mashable Pakistan talked to the co-authors to learn about all that went behind the making of this book.
Sharing the background story as to how they came up with the idea and decided to work on this book, Mehr shared that the idea for the book came to her in 2017 when she was dropping her son off to school.
“I’d had a baby and was still recovering so I was sitting in my car and saw another mum dressed to the hilt — heels, three piece lawn outfit, make up, hair done, the works! — but she looked as miserable as I was feeling. That really got me thinking ‘who is telling women to dress this way? And why are women dressing this way? Why do we have to dress in a certain way to be accepted by society at large?”
During this period Saad was working in partnership with Sonya Rehman, one of Pakistan’s finest cultural journalists. And Mehr had been after them to do a book since the work they produced was stunning.
On that fateful morning, on her way back from the school drop Mehr found a message from Saad about the idea and for a collaboration and as they say the rest is history.
According to Saad, “The discussion led to the idea of doing a book on the fashion industry, and we decided to make it a historical one which emphasized its formation and evolution.”
This labour of love took three long years of tedious hard work. There was so resource material to fall back on; no books, records nothing, so the co-authors had to do their research from scratch. This encompassed endless phone conversations with designers, photographers, make-up artists, stylists, models, fashion journalists, magazine publishers and newspaper editors to collect firsthand information and images.
For Mehr the entire process was a huge learning curve and gave the duo an insight into Pakistan which they did not have before. “There were exciting times such as when Saad had access to the treasure trove of archives at the Newsline offices thanks to Rehana Hakim. We got Tarun Tahiliani to do our foreword which was amazing. Seeing the first complete draft in all its colourful glory thanks to our Art Director, Minhaj was truly magical!”
Sharing his experience Saad said; “I literally went to all the major old bookshops in Karachi and Lahore, hunting for old magazines and books on fashion. I was also lucky to have access to Newsline’s Karachi office, where I scanned anything related to fashion. Those rare and exclusive archives now form a major and integral part of the book. The archives were documented in time, as sadly both Herald and Newsline have shut down.”
Talking about the significance of Pakistan: A Fashionable History, Mehr shared that the country is almost always studies or written about through a political lens and that is just unfair. There is an entire social history that is not being documented; be it art, cinema, music, theatre, fashion, design, culture in general and much more. This book is not just about fashion, it is a holistic documentation of the role fashion played in creating avenues for other fields connected to pop culture as well. She considers this to be a starting point and an important one and hopes that it encourages others to explore and write about these diverse subjects as well.
In addition to this another reason due to which this is an important book is because it boasts some of the best individuals in the fashion industry who changed things for South Asia as a whole. From Teejays to Sehyr Saigol to the PFDC Pakistani fashion acted as a spokesperson for the country. There are people like Asif Raza and Tapu Javeri who literally created a platform for photography that everyone uses today formally or informally. Fifi Haroon and Arshad Tareen set up magazines that acted as liberators for the youth. The world will see a side of Pakistan that even Pakistanis did not know about.
Saad added that the book is a tribute to an important industry which has defined culture since its inception. Interestingly, the book isn’t just about fashion designers, it also pays homage to individuals without whom the industry may have never existed.
Fashion is not just cloths on a hanger or just a trend, it is an expression it is a comment on society and by the society. It is a business. As Mehr explained, in Pakistan our fashion comes from the grassroots, in our craft. That is where the story begins. The people of this land have given us our cultural identity and that is spun into fashion. Post partition politicians became our style icons and connected with the people through the clothes they wore. Benazir Bhutto emerged as a style icon. Clothes have also acted as an empowering force especially for women during the late 70s and 80s when androgynous clothing was the norm and women were daring to wear clothes that did not reek of femninity but in fact empowered them to take control of their identity.
Given that we talked to two individuals who have invested three years of their lives documenting all things fashion, it made sense to ask what their staple fashion choice was. For Mehr it’s the 80s style shalwar kameez that she still wears and Saad who considers himself quite unfashionable the kurta shalwar combination is his go to choice.
What to the authors hope that the readers take away from this book?
“I hope they will be proud of their country. They will see what the country had, learn what we have lost and hopefully be encouraged to find their own passions to define themselves as Pakistanis.” — Mehr
“While the book is historical, I feel that this publication is for the current and upcoming generations, who need to have the ownership of their country. I feel there is a massive disconnect, owing to the national identity crisis. We continue to battle with our actual roots and seek to adapt foreign cultures. I want this book to be an eye opener for all those who have that disconnect.” — Saad
Originally published at https://pk.mashable.com on September 7, 2020.
