Fashion: Climbing up The PinkTree

The brand launches four lines through Ensemble.

KARACHI:

With two decades in print, cyber and television medium behind him, it seems only natural that fashion journalist Mohsin Sayeed would foray into designing. And he’s done just that, with the label The PinkTree. The Express Tribune spoke to Sayeed and Hadia Khan, who is one of his partners in this endeavour, regarding their new venture.

The PinkTree journey

Sayeed shares that the idea for The PinkTree sprung when a group of four old friends — including Amber A Khan, Sheena Rizvi, Hadia Khan and Sayeed himself — “decided to turn their lifetime investment i.e. their quarter-of-a-century-old friendship into their retirement plan”. Their aim for the brand was to dress up every woman who has a sense of humour about her flaws and doesn’t let them overcome her charming disposition.

Target market

When asked if PinkTree were a woman, the duo chirped that anyone who exuded confidence could be their brand ambassador, their target market and their clientele. “As long as a woman has poise and confidence, she’s our brand ambassador. It could be anyone from model Iman Ali to a woman in 40s with three children,” Sayeed quipped.

Design philosophy

The fashion journalist added that their design mantra is: “Simple, classic and sharply-tailored clothes.” On categorising the brand, they refuse to label themselves as designers or a design house and prefer being called a lifestyle brand. “After the clothing lines find their place in the market, we plan to diversify into other prerequisites of modern life.”

Plus-size blues

When it comes to their clothing lines, they also cater to plus-size women — which is a segment that a lot of Pakistani pret labels are slowly and gradually entering. On what sets the brand apart from other pret labels who offer large, extra large and XXL sizes for plus-size women, Sayeed stated, “At PinkTree, we have a separate design philosophy comprising of exclusive cuts, fabric and stitching which compliment the shape and curves of voluptuous women.”

Retail philosophy

Regarding their store set-up, Khan said, “We are already retailing through Ensemble in Karachi and Lahore. We recently exhibited in Dubai and were shocked to get a 100 % response. But for now, we are still building on our production capabilities.”

However, one question that pricked our minds was how this brand would be any different from the multitude of pret brands that claim exclusivity but make the entire town dress up the same way? Sayeed explained, “We are trying to divide our supply in a way that each city gets only six to seven pieces of the same ensemble. So there are lower chances of clients running into people wearing the same design.”

Clothing categories

It seems that the team has set out some rather ambitious objectives for themselves. While most brands try perfecting one particular genre of clothing before moving to the next, PinkTree has launched four completely different clothing lines already. The first line called The Pencil Sketch is a prêt solution for working women and plus-size women. The line has sharply-tailored, lightly embellished sheer muslins, flowing linens, crisp karandis and woven fabrics on offer.

Another line called ‘Jamun’ featured their formal attire, meant for dinners and shadis. And if that wasn’t enough, they had also ventured into bridal wear with ‘Regalia’. Not leaving behind little divas, they have a specific line ‘Sweet Pea’ for younger girls.

In a nutshell

While Khan displayed some of the pieces to us, we couldn’t help but notice that although the cuts and silhouettes were gorgeous, the colours chosen beautiful and the embellishment simple and tasteful, the clothes lacked a signature style or an element that tied all the lines together. However, considering the brand only kick-started in October 2011, one is compelled to give the brand some leverage.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2012.