Style Icon: Wardha Saleem, Fashion Designer

A lean, toned body and an impeccable fashion sense — this is what defines fashion designer Wardha Saleem. A graduate in Textile Designing from Indus Valley School of Arts, Wardha can never get her style wrong!

Known for designing clothes with flamboyant colours and psychedelic prints, Wardha beautifully fuses the East with the West. While we’re in love with her creations, we love her personal sense of style just as much.

“My style philosophy is minimal, elegant and not going too blingy,” says the designer about her fashion mantra. Although she loves all colours, she “ends up sporting lots of blacks and whites”. “If my ensemble has a lot of colour, I try reducing it down with a solid black or white,” she adds.

Wardha is the sort of designer who sees fashion as a means to promote local craft and this is the reason why her favourite Pakistani designer is Rizwan Beyg. “Rizwan does what a designer should be doing. He brought cross-stitch, truck art and other local crafts to high fashion,” she says.

The designer is fond of shoes and uses them to accessorise her outfits. From her current collection, she says her favourite is a pair of black Fendi heels.

She advises women to not follow trends blindly, but adapt them in a way that matches their personal style. “You don’t have to follow fashion trends showcased on ramps. You can pick out whatever you like [from them] and adapt accordingly.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2013.

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