Lukewarm response to Fashion for Floods

At the Fashion for Flood Relief, one didn’t witness the kind of response the event saw last year.

LAHORE:

Holding glamour-centric events to raise charity is a norm all over the world to lure the well-heeled in society to contribute towards a cause. Many may feel it’s a superficial way to raise funds, claiming that people should be giving out of their free will and compassion rather than looking for a bargain to be compelled towards philanthropy.

However, all around the world, communities attempt to marry a noble cause with some form of entertainment as a reminder that life takes a myriad of forms and that good times are not far. Yet, at the recent fund raiser, Fashion for Flood Relief, which unfortunately seems to have become a seasonal event with the floods becoming a recurrent calamity in the country, one didn’t witness the kind of response the event saw last year.

“It’s turned into one large shopping spree,” criticised a young helper who felt that, “A lot of people are tight from the heart.” The boy made a good observation since the event saw a lukewarm response, and the usual fashion suspects were nowhere to be found. Underlying factors could be; the dengue epidemic in Lahore and the Taseer family — usually in the front line of relief efforts in the city — going undercover. Or on a more pragmatic note, as one gentleman assessed, “Last year, the floods were in Punjab so response was great. If this event was held in Karachi it would have been better.”

The only organisation that appeared to do well was Zimmedar Shehri that sold hand bands for Rs100, managing a total of Rs20,000 at the event. Additionally, they shared that their door-to-door collection reached a grand total of Rs178,675.

Although there was an assorted collection with a number of goodies in the offering — cupcakes, furniture, art work and a host of discounted coupons from salons — the overwhelming feeling, as one young shopper stated, was that, “People (designers) don’t have a heart anymore. All the clothes they gave out were so bad.”

Despite what appeared to be a disgruntled crowd, one of the organisers of the event, Reema Qureishi, revealed that they had managed to secure 200 designers from all fields of the arts to contribute and raised Rs2.1million in a day, which is the same as the average for last year’s event. However, last year, the event seemed a lot more happening as designers like Syed Rizwanullah had flown in from Karachi to give support.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2011.