Gul Ahmed’s Ideas of course! But this winter, they disappointed me.
I was pleasantly surprised by:
Nishat Linens - super nice stores, variety, professional staff
Threads and Motifs - CLEAN EMBROIDERY, lots of options - thought about getting some fancy wear done with them.
Jalaluddin’s in Saddar - best shawls ever - he imports them from Kashmir and Srinagar, interesting stuff, also has a lot of quality locally made chaddars.
Ego - hip new store, nice designs, affordable for internationals shopping for desi clothes. Kurti prices in the 2000-3000 range
Sana and Safinaz prete store - they have a casual kurti’s store now in Dollmen at the beach - 6000 ruppees for a kurti you can wear on tights to lunch or to a nice evening somewhere or to someone’s casual/semiformal dawat. 60 bucks isn’t bad for a semi-fancy dawat where you can wear a uniquely embroidered clean professional kurti. Also have some great stuff for working women to wear at work in Pakistan!
The Dollmen on Clifton beach - oh em gee, nice mall, and lots of good solid local designers selling their stuff there. A few shops that are exclusively high end designers, in which some newbie designers also post their wardrobes. The newbie designers are key - they’re more affordable, and try to stick with more high end type styles. I got two such suits from low-key designers.
Koyal - nice raw silk with unique elegant block prints. Highly pricey but worth it for a nice dawat or shaadi wear.