A ‘summery’ treat

Mausummery finally has its ready-to-wear collection.

LAHORE:

Quite some time after other designers had already tapped into the market of ready-to- wear lawn, Mausummery, the quintessential lawn giant, has finally ventured into this lucrative area.

The Mausummery lawn empire has experienced a massive expansion over the years. But most of this growth has focused on horizontal expansion — opening up of more spacious stores providing both prêt wear along with home fabric. The strength of the brand lies in its distinctive prints and the sublime feel of the fabric.

Huma Ahmed, who spearheads part of this vast lawn empire, pinpoints that the brand keeps a very stringent check on the quality of cloth. “Unlike other textile empires, for us, Mausummery is our core business so all our efforts go towards it,” Ahmed said firmly.

The entrepreneur explained that Mausummery had not experienced any vertical expansion since the last 15 years simply because it wanted to ensure stringent quality control.

Now that the market is being inundated with lawn, this is the first time the brand has actively stepped forward to formally launch itself into the retail market.

“Just when the designer lawn market is bursting at its seams, we felt it was time to innovate within our brand and take a fresher approach to retail. It is now time to expand to include prêt-a-porter wear based on our fabric and to introduce home fabrics.”

“Our prêt line is an organic extension of our lawn hence instead of added embellishment we are using different aspects of our design in the print,” explained Fatima, a member of the Mausummery team. This summer with prints inspired from vintage Ikat, Moroccan lace and Victorian damask, the brand enthralled hordes of women, who frequented the store.

“The point for us is to ensure that our clients don’t have to step outside our stores for an outfit.” Fatima emphasized that both stores, located at Mini Market in Gulberg, carry different prints, so even within the brand variety exists.

But the popular brand has not tried to undermine creativity involved in designing one’s own lawn jora. While contemplating about making ready-to-wear joras, big designers like Hasan Sheheryar Yasin of HSY, displayed reluctance because of the fact that Pakistani women thoroughly enjoy designing their own lawn clothes.

But the clever designers at Mausummery have not asked women to completely forgo the option of designing their own clothes. You can buy the loose cloth and do it yourself, or purchase the three-piece ready-to-wear suit done entirely by their team for a reasonable price.

Next up the brand hopes to include separates (although it is still carrying churidaars) along with venturing into home accessories and embroidered fabric.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2011.