Milestone: 10 years and counting

A decade of Élan was celebrated with brand’s first-ever solo fashion show

LAHORE: The international fashion circuit has been experiencing a shakeup of sorts. Leading fashion capitals like Milan, Paris, London and New York continue organising fashion weeks but big brands such as Dior and Burberry, among others, have been holding elaborate solo shows to avoid the chaos and clutter fashion weeks beget.

As our local fashion industry has exponentially grown, this trend has trickled down to Pakistan as well. Design houses such as Nida Azwer and Faraz Manan have been hosting elaborate events, trying to create a veritable experience of their brand, instead of simply having models walk the ramp at fashion weeks.

The latest to jump onto the bandwagon is Élan, with an exclusive evening held at its creative director Khadija Shah’s home. Here, the designer showcased her latest bridal collection Palais Indochine. To celebrate Élan’s 10th anniversary, Yousaf Shahbaz of Strata — who also did the interior for Sapphire’s concept store — recreated the grandeur of a Mughal palace at the designer’s sprawling residence.

There was greenery, with white roses and music from the finest jazz orchestra in Pakistan, Sachal Studios. The models walked out to their music onto a ramp that was made to facilitate couture viewing the way it should be: up close and personal.

“The collection has a lot of Southeast Asian and subcontinental influences so I wanted it to be an eclectic mix of both. It was a grand bridal collection so we wanted to set up a palace and a courtyard,” Shah told The Express Tribune. “The palace is fictional and not a recreation of one that exists. It’s all from our minds, with a little bit of Chinese and Indian heritage so we had pagodas and minarets - two sensibilities to be merged into one.” The aesthetics of the show were intrinsically linked to Shah’s couture creations which had little umbrellas, pagodas, cherry blossoms, orchids and birds and animals. The show was also streamed live on Élan’s website and according to a press release, 7,000 people tuned in for it.

The major trends noticed were peplum tops on flared pants and lenghas, bridals peppered with blacks and belted velvet pantsuits. A standout ensemble worn by Fauzia Aman was a ferozi choli and a lengha with Élan’s signature silver filigree all over.

Although Palais Indochine had plenty of the brand’s signature bridals, there were ensembles with pops of deep, royal colours, suitable for the upcoming colder months. The menswear was well constructed with interesting pops like dragonfly embellishments on jackets and printed sherwanis, tying it in with the women’s wear. Amna Ilyas and Adnan Malik walked for a stellar final look.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2016.

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