Munib Nawaz: On the attributes of women

The men’s wear designer is now targeting a new market: the independent woman.

LAHORE:

He’s as crazy as they get in this line of business, with a wacky sense of humour and an even crazier sense of fashion presentation. But that doesn’t mean that Munib Nawaz makes outlandish clothes. Far from it. His signature look is a well tailored blazer and trousers and a well structured muted sherwani: Clothing that defines the quintessential man.

Yet when he takes to the ramp, he will always spruce up the whole game with eccentric machinations like making models behave like Punjabi pehalwans ready for a kushti. And while he’s firmly entrenched himself with men’s wear, he’s now venturing with full force into the territory of women’s wear as well, a glimpse of which he offered at the vintage cars and fashion show held by the Pearl Continental a few days ago.

As I walk in, he’s bent over a piece of A4 paper, trying to sketch out a design locked in his head. “I’m trying to add Munib Nawazness to the designs submitted to me by my team,” he offers by way of explanation, as we chuckle over how his workers have no definition for plain embellishment-free clothing and call anything with work on it ‘pret’. “I want women to do away with gold eventually, that’s what my formal line will be about.”

Even though I criticise his formal line for having the same cliched designs, Nawaz smartly responds, “The market is so saturated that you cannot dictate the market or your client, no matter who you are. If a client is paying a lakh and asking for the same jora that Anushka Sharma wore in Band Baja Baraat, you’ve got to do it.” But to keep the creativity kicking, Nawaz does a line of funky kurtas every summer for women, and admits that although he hasn’t even promoted it very well, professional women have been coming to him for their corporate wear fixes.

Out of the ten kurtas that he had showcased at the PC, nine have been picked up swiftly by friends while he’s hanging onto the last one as a prototype. For casual clothing, pricing is key. And that is something Nawaz, a middle class urban professional himself, understands well. Hence, his categories are three-tiered: Rs2,500-5,500 for the casuals, 10 to 25 thousand for the luxury pret and higher for the heavier bridal lines.

“I am middle class,” says Nawaz with pride. “I represent the larger chunk of people, and my clients are like myself: Businessmen and self-made professionals.” He’s a huge fan of Richard Branson, and loves quoting from management books which he devours for inspiration and growth.

Nawaz hopes to formally launch his women’s brand, Attributes of a Woman by Munib Nawaz, before Ramadan this year. The line focuses on seven attributes of women that Nawaz’s team gleaned from an intense survey that asked women what attribute about themselves they celebrate most, such as strength, sensuality and elegance.

“I am targeting a particular kind of woman who hasn’t been tapped into yet: The woman who works and wants value for her time, money and her personality. You can’t dress or treat young working women, like yourself, in the same way you would a wannabe socialite,” says Nawaz. “We’re going after the attributes of this woman, and not her bank balance. For even if she earns a lakh per month she will not be donning an overworked jora, even at a wedding,” identifies Nawaz.

“The eventual goal, however, is to make it a stand-alone brand without the Munib Nawaz name, and truly celebrate the independent minded woman.” At the moment a kurta sporting a peacock made entirely out of ralli on its back, catches my attention for its inventive use of a regional craft. If Nawaz can truly tap into the mind of the urban professional woman, his women’s line may just have as much punch as his men’s.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2011.