New arrivals at Ensemble

The house of Ensemble launches its spring/summer collection titled ‘One’.

KARACHI:

The house of Ensemble launched its spring/summer collection titled ‘One’, made entirely of pure cotton and lawn the collection has 54 designs featuring block prints, screen prints and embroidery.

Brainchild of Shehrnaz Husain, creative director of the line, the collection has revived once-obsolete white ‘shalwars’ to replace trousers, she has introduced three different types of white shalwars and two types of trousers to compliment any outfit.

Sharing the details of the new stock, Zeba Mubeen, manager of the retail brand, said: “Given the unbearable summer heat, we have reintroduced white shalwars that soften the sillouette and are  infinitely cooling in the extreme humidity; and played with an array of colours ranging from orange all the way to white for shirts.”

When asked about the target audience for the new line, Mubeen said: “The target audience remains women from the ages of 15 to 50 years. The designing has been done in such a way that everyone would want the collection in their wardrobe.”

Husain has continued the use of the peacock motif, something that earned her success in her past collection. Talking about previous experimentations with the motif, Mubeen said, “The response was very good in past. Hence, we repeated the peacocks in our spring/summer line.”

Inspired by orientalism, the collection has european feel to it such as the black-and-white striped shirt with the ‘camellia’ brooch. Others have an eastern element to them which include conventional block printing and embroidery.

“The embellishment, tailoring and styling of the outfits have been done at the outlet, the collection caters to working women . Women do not have to go to the tailors for their outfits and the tailoring woes will come to an end,” said Mubeen.

At a time when a three piece lawn suit costs anywhere between Rs 1,300 and Rs 8,000, its relieving to see that most retail brands are now offering cost effective ready-to-wear apparel. The clothes in this collection range from Rs1,800 up to Rs5,000.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2011.