Re: Shopping in Karachi
What's your price range for these items, like lawn and party wear? Technically you can still get all kinds of stuff in all price ranges at Rabi Center in Tariq Road. For lawn the best ones are Gul Ahmed, Farooq lawns besides the designer ones like Junaid Jamshed, Vanessa, Rizwan Baig etc. The Gul Ahmed and Classic (mid range) start from Rs1300 the cheapset going upto Rs 2500. Classic starts from Rs 650 . Junaid Jamshed lowed priced ones are Rs 1200 in lawns and Rs3,000 and up in cotton suits, though I do think their cotton ones are over priced, but everyone may not agree. Bareze is still in for chicekn and some party wear unstiched suits though these are expensive, chicekn (eyelet) starts at Rs3000, while party wear fabric suits are Rs 10,000 and so.
For party wear there has just opened Mohsin's ( Tariq Road and also Clifton) party wear you can get for Rs10,000 or so. Rizwan Moazzam at tariq Road, Cynosure, Generation and exclusive (boutiques) and Portia is also good for lawns, as well as party wear. Its reasonably priced and good quality. Then of course there are the designers like Karma and HSY who are bascially Lahore based but have their outlets in Karachi. They are hot designers but quite expensive, though you can take advantage of the strong dollar npwadays :-). She can also check out "The Point" and The Forum at Clifton for high end shopping. The Point has Maria B, Nadia Mistry etc.
Try Millenium Mall near Karachi Cricket Stadium. They are good and reasobably priced, along with Ashiaana at Clifton near Aga's Super market. If your mom has time, then the first thing she can do is to get "kaam" made for your party wear dresses. I would recommend Gulf Shopping Center at Clifton for that; good quality and reasonably priced. The kaam that is in these days is ribbon work, large stone work, bead work and "panni work" (looks like mirrors but actaully is shiny type paper) as well as large mirror work and thin gota/ kalabato work. Of course it also depends upon your taste too as you may not like this type of kaam, but this is what is trendy these days. The all favourite sitara work is on the decline though if you haven't got one dress made with that yet, go for it. So far for myself I have liked beadwork and ribbon work. If you do decide to get them made tell your mom to give the kaam first to the karaigar so that its ready by the time she leaves, depending on the kaam, they can get it ready in 10 days even. Infact I have seen good quality kaam even in Karachi's Anarakali bazar in FB area (not a hi fi area but you can get more for the dollar). Avoid paposh area though, I never did like the quality despite the cheap prices for kaam. Gizri is also very good for kaam but may be a bit more expensive than Gulf. Ready to made kaam can be had at Rabi Center at tariq Road, Gulf etc. Kurtis too are all over, the really ethnic looking are at Zainab Market.
Ethnic chockers you can get all over like Tariq Road etc but Zainab Market is the best in my opinion. For other stuff you might want to get books in Urdu if you are into that kind of thing, formal trays for serving guests that are a bit hard to find here and matching sandals for the clothes. Maybe things like mutani maati or Ubtan if you want that. And ankelts and bracelets too!!
Hope this helps!!And do let me know if my input helped in shopping!!
unless I want only one suit which I sure don’t:smack: