Singer-turned-designer Junaid Jamshed’s J Lawn Exhibition started on Wednesday, March 2 at The Palm, near Beach View park, Karachi. Jamshed’s lawn collection this year attracted larger crowds than those present at various other lawn exhibitions.
Though we could not get comments from Jamshed himself, The Express Tribune explored the details of J Lawn 2011 with the brand’s media manager Bilal Akhtar, who said: “Our target audience are women belonging to the age bracket of 18 to 40 years.”
“The designer lawn has been subcategorised into eight different collections. We are offering 61 lawn prints this season,” said Jawad Tahir, the customer relations manager of the brand.
Lawn prints were priced between Rs1,985 and Rs3,585, a little higher than last year’s collection. Talking about the price hike, Akhtar said, “We keep a minimal profit margin. With an increase of three per cent in the cotton yarn rates, it is difficult to maintain the pricing equilibrium. Hence, there are no profit margins this year.”
With relatively little advertising (done in the form of billboards, text messages and pamphlets), Junaid Jamshed has been able to maintain loyal customers like Farhat Hanif, who claims she only wears J Lawn.”I bought seven suits this time.
The prices are relatively higher than last year’s but I think the fabric suits the skin, keeping the hot summers of Karachi in mind,” said Hanif.
But for another visitor Raheela Agha, the collection had nothing unique to offer, saying it was more or less the same as offered by the other designer brands. Unlike Hanif, however, Agha found the prices reasonable compared to the other lawn brands.
Spotted at the exhibition was model Rubab who said, “The offerings are better than those of the other designers. But what the mannequins are wearing is certainly not the entire three piece suit that they are offering.” And how was that? she replied, “Look, if the outfit on the mannequin has sleeves of chiffon, then the three piece should contain chiffon sleeves in it, but it doesn’t. It is just the lawn prints that are available. The prices of J Lawn are okay as compared to the others. Their prints and designs are better than many others who have come out with their collection this time.”
The large number of people visiting the outlet makes one wonder if the only reason behind such a response is the quality and designs of Jamshed’s lawn collection. The fan following that the celebrity enjoys because of his abandoned music career and his “inspirational” story of turning deeply to Islam could be a major reason for such a massive crowd.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2011.
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