Laced Border
After cricket and music, it’s clothes. Pakistani fashion — lace, beads, pin tucks, sequins — is in.
SHOBITA DHAR
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Downtown Chandigarh. On a warm afternoon, Aroma Hotel’s parking lot is packed with cars, each disgorging pretty Punjabi ladies in a hurry to lay their hands first on yards and yards of soft white cotton called ‘Lawn’ printed in a myriad colours, Swiss voile dupattas bordered with white lace, embroidered chiffon kurtas in pista, or just a plain white salwar—all made in Pakistan.** With better quality, excellent cuts and easy on the wallet, Pakistani suits and fabrics are the latest craze in North India.**
The hottest selling item seems to be the Pakistani salwar. Different from its Indian cousin in length as well as design, a typically Pakistani salwar ends a little above the ankles, has a lesser ghera (sweep) and uses lots of lace, beads and pin tuck. Delhi housewife and art collector Mandira Lamba says she gets hounded each time she goes partying wearing fashion from across the border: “Everybody wants to know where I get these salwars stitched from.” What Lamba and many others do is, they get a prototype stitched from Pakistan and then pass it on to the local tailors for replication. Following this method, a number of boutiques in Chandigarh and other smaller cities in Punjab now specialise in stitching these salwars.
Of course, the exchange of fashion between India and Pakistan is nothing new. Indian silks like tussar and embroideries like gara have always found a ready favour in Pakistan just as Indians have been fans of Pakistani cottons. Unfortunately, years of strained relationship affected this cultural exchange. But, today, post peace buses and “friendship tour” cricket, travel between the two countries has become smoother and more frequent. And Indians who have friends in Pakistan are travelling more than ever and returning with bags full of fashion goodies from Saleem Fabrics, Liberty Market, Lahore, a popular shopping joint with the visiting Indians. **And Pakistanis often come visiting with trunks full of fabrics and suit pieces and hold exhibitions, either in hotels or at friends’ homes in Delhi or Chandigarh. **
Aroma Hotel in Chandigarh is a popular venue. “Since last summer, I have had three successful exhibitions. Usually they are held over the weekend or the whole week but since the demand is so high we always end up extending them by a few days,” says Manmohan Singh, owner of the hotel. More than a fashion statement, the frenzy over Pakistani clothes, he feels, is about a mindset. “We would rather go for a Made in Pakistan tag rather than Made in China or Taiwan.”
Entrepreneurs like Farnaz Ahmad have now gone ahead and opened stores like Image in Delhi. Inderdeep Singh Chawla’s Bareeze is another store stocking expensive fabrics from the other side of Wagah. And neither is complaining about their business decision. “I’ve been getting a lot of franchisee enquiries from Chandigarh,” says Ahmad, who plans to take her store to tourist destinations like Jaipur and Agra.
But the majority of Pakistani fashion aficionados still prefer to source clothes from their trips to Lahore and Karachi. Chinna Dua, wife of TV journalist Vinod Dua, loves to shop at the Liberty Market. “I freak out on their cottons—believed to be the best in the world,” she says. Apart from the quality and the craftsmanship of clothes, what she likes best about shopping in Lahore, she says, is that it’s cheap. “For just Rs 150, I can get a lovely lawn suit, which in India would have cost above Rs 500. And being an Indian you end up getting attractive discounts as well,” says Dua whose last visit to the country in May this year turned out to be one big shopping expedition.
Although good quality cottons are available in India as well, they come at a high price. Similarly, Pakistani organza is superior to the Indian variety because it does not swell like its cousin. **“Where Pakistani fabrics score over Indian fabrics is in terms of quality and treatment given to the fabric,” claims Chawla. “Moreover,” says Nagina Singh, PR manager at Taj Chandigarh and owner of an impressive collection of Pakistani suits, “their clothes have a very distinct look, you can easily stand out in a crowd, be it the typically cut salwar or the distinct silver matte look that all their clothes have.” **
In retrospect, it was the yearly Bridal Asia fair that brought in design talent from Pakistan in a big way. In 1999, the fair for the first time presented Pakistani designers to Indian customers and the media. Now, the exchange of fashion has become more aggressive and organised. Designers like J.J. Valaya, Satya Paul, Puja Nayyar and Siddharth Tytler have done shows there. In October, Pakistan will host its first ever Fashion Week. “The design industry in Pakistan is still evolving, yet, there are a lot of young designers who make perhaps the best cut salwar kameezes in this part of the world,” says Nayyar. Faiza Sami and Buntoo Kazmi from Karachi are two such designers whose creations find eager Indian customers. Like Anjali Bhalla, owner of Delhi’s Nitanjali Art Gallery. She and her daughter-in-law Riddhi like their sense of colour and use of rich fabric. “They use a lot of gota (silver and gold embellishments) and have their own characteristic block prints,” says Bhalla.
First it was cricket, then music. Now it’s time to temper the mutual suspicion and animosity in the rustle of organza. Laced Border
After cricket and music, it’s clothes. Pakistani fashion — lace, beads, pin tucks, sequins — is in.
SHOBITA DHAR