I wanted to give you all a quick run down of my shopping trip in Lahore - I just got back. I hope this will be of help to those of you planning their wedding shopping - esp. those that don’t live in Lahore.
I’ll start with my bridal dress. I ended up ordering my bridal from Karma - I got their Sarson bridal but changed up the colours and some other details to make it a baraat outfit. I went to see a few other designers besides Karma - I went to see Mohd. Mehdi, HSY & Fahad Hussayn. I wanted to go see Nilofer Shahid and Zainab Sajid also but never made it to Nilofer Shahid’s and heard from my friend (who lives in Lahore) that she hasn’t had a new bridal collection in some time. I called Zainab Sajid and they said that they had closed their outlet in Lahore and will be opening up at a different location sometime in the new year. Karma had some really nice pieces and were located in DHA (above the Nirala store in Y block market). At my last visit I heard that they have a new collection coming out in a week - I asked if they will be putting it up on the website but they said that not for a while as it gets copied right away. They were really busy everytime I visited them and maybe as a consequence I found their customer service very lacking and not up to par. I felt really rushed everytime I went there and as they only have one bridal room that all their clients use there wasn’t too much privacy. They asked me to make apointments but when I would get to my appointment the rep I was dealing with had no idea why I was there and would ask me what he could for me that day (when we had already decided two or three days ago what I would be coming in for e.g. finalize bridal dress details, colour etc). Their prices were really reasonable though and they had a lot of variety of stuff available (lots of samples). They had some really nice formals also. At their prices though I couldn’t find anyone else as good as them (with respect to the designs, quality of the kaam, value for the money paid) and so ended up going with them.
Mehdi had really great customer service but they were very pricey and my friend who went with me and my mom didn’t like the kaam on the clothes (who are both experts on kaam while I’m a novice) - they thought it wasn’t very good. His cuts and colours were beautiful though. I liked a red bridal dress there that they quoted to me at 4.5 lakh but then came down to 3.5 lakh exactly as is, when I told them that my budget was 3 to 3.5 lakh. I was quite shocked at that as I thought designers didn’t bargain. But both Mehdi and Karma did bargain. I hated Mehdi’s formals though, I thought that they were absolutely hideous!!! I went to see HSY’s collection also (out of curiosity) eventhough he was out of my budget I didn’t buy from him. He had some really fabulous pieces and his studio is very large and looked quite professional (it was a large villa turned into a studio in Gulberg). Mehdi by comparison was operating out his home in DHA it appeared. I loved HSY’s cuts and the kaam was beautiful, however I thought his colours were either too dull or too light for my taste. A very simple outfit that you might wear as a formal or on your mehndi was for 2 lakh and heavy bridals were in the 5 to 6 lakh range (they start at 4 lakh). I don’t know if he bargains as I didn’t buy anything from there. Fahad Hussayn was a disappointment. His studio was in his villa in Cavary ground and over all he was not very professional I felt. There were not too many bridal pieces that you could look at in his studio, just some formals. I didn’t really like anything on display though he did say that he could with me and design me something if I gave him a budget.
I was hoping to get my nikkah and mehndi outfits from Karma but as they were really busy and their customer service appeared non existant to me I didn’t bother. I actually told them a number of time I wanted to buy other outfits from them but on one accasion the rep I dealt with was in a hurry and had to leave and said to come back later to see the outfits. When I came later, he appeared to have forgotten entirely that I had mentioned to him repeated that I wanted to see mehndi and nikkah outfits also and never mentioned them.
I ended up getting both my nikkah and mehndi outfits from House of Fashion design (HFD also called Banarsi). They were pricey but had some really nice stuff - I thought they were a good alternative to designer wear. They are located next to Moon Banarsi - they had some nice outfits also though I didn’t buy anything from there (has a different owner) in Cantt. I liked a frock for my nikkah outfit - it was in cream and I ordered it in a light pink. I thought it was pretty different from the other stuff in the market. I changed up a bridal outfit, a sharara in red and purple (original bridal outfit was 1.5 lakh) into a mehndi outfit by reducing the kaam on the outfit and changing the colours to yellow shirt and dubatta and bottle green sharara (banarsi). I love both outfits!!! HFD don’t really bargain much - they quoted the frock I got for my nikkah at 75,000 with light kaam on the dubatta also and camee down to 70,000 as last price. The mehndi outfit is also costing us about the same 75,000, with a very light dubatta. Other than them I also visited Zardozi, Libas e Khas and Think Pink as alternative to designers. I didn’t like too much at Zardozi and Think Pink but I did like a few outfits at Libas e Khas, though they were nice the outfits were really over priced for the amount of kaam on them. For the ones I liked (mostly frocks with no kaam on the dubatta, I was quoted 65,000 / 75,000 / 85,000. At those prices I’m sure you could get something from Karma too that would be nicer.
I visited lots of shops in Liberty to see and get an idea of kaam, also went to Anarkali and Kinari bazar to see kaam etc. Liberty is pretty expensive for formals I found. Anything with a decent amount of kaam was in the 25,000 rupees range and above. I had a lot of trouble finding a decent tailor - I ended up going to one my friend in Lahore had just started going to. I hope my clothes turn out OK as I won’t be there to try them on and get any alteration done! Anyways, ladies please do ask away if you have any questions and I would be happy to provide answers to any questions I know!!! I also bought a few pairs of shoes and 2 clutches - I was pretty disappointed with ECS as they hardly had anything I liked as before (3 or 4 years ago when I visited last) they had lots of nice stuff. We got lots of shoes from Stylo this time around as I felt they had good variety.
