Khaadi exuberantly celebrates '20 years of vibrant you'

Explore the incredible 20 year journey of Pakistan’s premium clothing and lifestyle brand

20 years ago, a clothing and lifestyle designer store resembling a modern-day startup, opened its door at Zamzama with an intention of resuscitating the ancient craft of hand woven fabric that is reinterpreted within a more contemporary and fashion-focused context, in order to suit the high street.  This was the vision of a 25-year-old man who started to pursue his dream of opening an unabridged fashion house brand only with a four hundred square foot store in Karachi’s trendy Zamzama commercial area with 5 looms. This man is no other than Mr Shamoon Sultan, who managed to originate Khaadi as the pioneer of Pakistan’s retail fashion sector creating new markets for his products and developing new ways of doing business in the retail sector.



Khaadi, the leading fashion and lifestyle powerhouses recently removed its name from the logo, becoming the first brand of the country to do so. The stylised logo with ten oblong shapes, symbolising fingers on a hand loom, now stands alone. The rebranding and removal of the name coincide with the brand’s celebration of 20 years in Pakistan. The brand boasts a glorious journey since its inception in 1998. What began as a 400 square foot store in Zamzama, has now expanded to over 500000 square feet of retail space with 43 outlets nationwide and 20 overseas. Let’s glance through Khaadi’s incredible journey bedecked with milestones and gain some insight into how this company managed to expand exponentially, even to the surprise of its founders.

Curious to test the market for handloom, Shamoon decided to open Khaadi with a startup capital of Rs3 million. Khaadi opened its doors on 13th December 2018 as a men’s clothing brand for hand woven khaddar clothing with its first store at the fashion boulevard Zamzama. The brand's success led to its expansion in Lahore and Islamabad and in 2010 Khaadi inaugurated its first international store in Dubai.



In 2012, Shamoon realised the potential of law and Khaadi diversified its portfolio to include Pret, Khaadi Unstitched, Lawn, Home, Khaas and Kids.  It was Khaadi , who pioneered of selling unstitched clothes at retail outlets in the manner its being done by all brands today. In 2017, the brand decided to focus on minimalist colour blocking on handwoven cloth, and thus launched a separate label Chapter 2.

On the launch of their 20^th anniversary celebrations, Khaadi rejoiced colours with the motto “20 years of vibrant you”. Khaadi’s philosophy embraces around vibrancy as it epitomises the state of harmony, energy, conviction where all forces come together to create wonder. Its inspiration is global ethnic fusion and the retail brand crafts clothes that give customers confidence. The brand has always focused on its message of inclusion, whether it is the products or social campaigns and has emerged as a winner for its global brand loyalists. The fashion brand’s inspiration is global ethnic fusion and takes pride in the fact that it caters to the women of every generation.


The ongoing campaign comprises of four colours that are incorporated heavily in their designs and products. Their colour philosophy is well aligned with their vision. For example, red symbolizes power and encourages empowerment and green defines pride and uplifts the spirit patriotism. Whereas, orange denotes a spirit of cheerfulness and blue signifies a sense of serenity, purity and confidence

Pakistan’s retail fashion brand Khaadi earned a plethora of accolades during its 20-year tenure. It won ten Lux Style Awards from Pakistan; Best Menswear (2002, 2005), Best High Street Brand (2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) and Achievement in Fashion Design – Prêt (for Khaadi Khaas in 2011). Moreover, it got shortlisted for the International Young Fashion Entrepreneur (IYFE) Award in 2008.



In 2010 Khaadi had the honour of going live on the Shell LiveWIRE International Hall of Fame as one of Pakistan’s leading fashion houses. Post seven years from 2010, in 2017 Khaadi bagged an award for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Brand Development’ category at the Hum Style Awards. Last but not least, in 2018 the brand was bestowed with a "Retail Brand of the Year Award" at the Hum Style Awards.

As it marks their 20th anniversary, the retail brand celebrated their birthday in style by opening its 45th store at Com 3, Bilalwal Chowrangi; 20 years to the day it first opened its doors at Zamzama. This is their eighth flagship store and it covers a whopping area of 18,000 square feet. The interesting part is that although Khaadi achieves a new milestone with the launch of each store, it continues to imbibe its clothes and stores with its signature touch.  One can easily identify the ‘Khaadi’ effect in the familiar-looking earthy coloured wooden store with its varnished wooden cash counters.



What’s even more fascinating is that Khaadi – the quintessential Pakistani brand, officially became a company only two years ago.  The determination and hard work is ought to make Khaadi a global institution. In the future, Shamoon plans on attaining success by increasing Khaadi’s global footprint, investing in long term business collaborations to enhance the customer retail experience and by offering consumers’ with products that complement Khaadi’s base product portfolio.

Khaadi has definitely raised the bar with its offerings and it’s inevitable that in the future, the brand will outshine yet again. Only time will tell what surprises they’ve got in stores for their loyal customers in the year 2019.