Of experimental designs, Eid spirit and Lahore’s Design Emporium

Credit must go to newspaper supplements featuring Eid collections for men - even Bareeze has launched a menswear line!

LAHORE: In a country beset with problems, the approaching Eid holiday might help with lagging spirits. But there is little heart left to celebrate. As an anchor for Express 24/7, I have covered so many terrorist acts on air in the past 10 days that Eid, which means happiness, appears quite meaningless.

But the Eid spirit is enough to generate an impulse to go shopping. Credit must go to newspaper weekend supplements which feature brands offering Eid collections for men - even Bareeze has launched a menswear line!

As an anchor who wears a suit and a tie constantly, I wanted to shake up the routine and get my hands on a good ol’ shalwar kameez. Having interviewed designer and entrepreneur Ammar Belal recently, I decided to take him up on his invitation to visit his newest venture, the Design Emporium in Lahore.

The plush environs of the Emporium serve as a solution to men’s purchasing worries. Since it is a multi-label store, it makes for a good shopping experience as the process of going through the racks is distraction free, and one feels spoiled for choice.

The Design Emporium stocks a number of menswear brands, and it caters to individual tastes. If you don’t like HSY’s offerings then just step across to Ismail Farid’s racks. Farid’s brilliant and individualistic designs are quite different from the embellished kurtas teamed with white shalwars that has been done to death now.

Being repetitive is something a designer should avoid and though I’m no GQ fashion editor, one does feel that repetition and producing for mass appeal has somehow removed the likes of Amir Adnan and Junaid Jamshed out of the category of fashion designers. They are now recognised as brands.

One fondly remembers the days of Zubair Ghumman’s Nee Punhal, where designs spoke to you and told a story even if it was the love tale of Sassi Punnoo!

Ammar Belal is always present at the store to offer advice to customers. “Where’s Amir Adnan in the store?” I asked. According to Belal, Adnan walked out of the Emporium because the philosophy didn’t match his. He is used to and known for churning out a particular style of design, and Adnan’s clientele is different from the relatively younger and willing to experiment crowd that shops at the Design Emporium, which is why he parted ways.

One was pleasantly surprised to see the reasonable price tag for the Eid collections. Belal said he had asked designers to keep the price range within Rs5,000 to get people buying, which is why the Emporium had run out of stock for quite a few designers.

His excitement is visible as he talks about what the Design Emporium stands for - showcasing upcoming menswear designers whose designs embody their individual personalities.

When it comes to Eid shopping, you shouldn’t fret about how you look.

Regardless of what you wear - whether it’s the offerings at Design Emporium or your old kurtas - it’s keeping up the spirit of Eid that matters.

After all, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “They think him the best dressed man, whose dress is so fit for his use that you cannot notice or remember to describe it.”

Waqas Rafique is an anchor for Express 24/7

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2010.