There are lots of ifs and buts that need to be sorted out.
The city of Lahore hosted its very first Lux Style Awards on Thursday, a night full of razzmatazz, glamour, shocks, disappointments and high voltage. In typical Lahori fashion, the red carpet, which was supposed to start at 5pm, kicked off no earlier than 7pm at the Expo Centre.
Media management
While the awards were high on glitter and bling, media and press handling was at its worse. Many publications left at the gate after the PR teams failed to accommodate them. It is times like these that one missed the very efficient Team Lotus that treats media personalities like royalty.
The performances
With time delays and unnecessarily long speeches, the event moved at a painfully slow pace, making it tedious. The final version for television airing, however, will be much crisper and well-edited. As for the dance performances, Sahiba and Noor were forgettable, Mathira failed to leave a mark, Meera was visibly making an effort but it was Sana who outshone everyone with her moves. Her moves were eclectic yet composed and she seemed to be having fun. Atif Aslam, who paid a tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, along with Humaima Mallick and Amina Sheikh, was the star of the show.
Hosting
As for the hosting, Ahmed Ali Butt was a far cry from his last year’s work. Mathira was trying too hard and was a bit too much at times but then that’s Mathira for you. At one time during the event, Mathira and Ahmed came down from the stage and made a few guests dance with them on popular Bollywood hits which turned out to be quite fun. While Nomi Ansari was reluctant, Ayesha Omar showed some serious moves.
The awards
As for the fashion nominations, Ammar Belal finally won the Best Menswear Brand Award despite the fact that he moved to New York last summer for further studies and hasn’t shown much on local platforms. Khaadi and Sana Safinaz retained their Best High Street and Achievement in Fashion Design — Lawn awards respectively. Other deserving winners included Mehreen Syed, who after countless nominations in previous years, walked away with Model of the Year. The talking point of the night was the results of the remaining fashion categories, which took everyone by surprise. Imaan Ahmed of Body Focus, who has been MIA from the fashion frontier for a while and hasn’t shown a collection since forever, went away with both Achievement in Fashion Design Pret and Luxury Pret, awards much to everyone’s dismay. Most of the editors, journalists and bloggers were rooting for Sania Maskatiya for pret and Shehla Chatoor or Elan for the luxury pret categories respectively, but the announcement for the winner came as quite a shock. Another surprise of the night came when Saima Azhar won the Emerging Talent in Fashion Award ahead of more deserving nominees like Abdullah Haris and Misha Lakhani.
But it wouldn’t be Lux Style Awards without a few shockers and surprises. As Salim Chatoor (Shehla Chatoor’s husband) very aptly put it, LSA is a googly. One couldn’t agree more!
Despite the negatives, there are countless positives to take home. Bringing LSA to Lahore, the city of Lollywood was always a great idea and apart from all the controversies, LSA still remains one of the most respected and respectively impartial award shows. That does not mean that there aren’t lots of ifs and buts that need to be sorted out. Some of the awards leave too many questions to be asked. The process of nominations and jury needs to be cleared up — it’s mind boggling that some of the same nominees keep winning the award each year (like Nabila, Sana Safinaz). The performances, too, need some serious boosting. Same goes for time management and the management of guests and media, which was quite a mess this year. But as long as the platform continues to show, grow and evolve, one can hope for the show to get better each year.
Usama Hamayun is a fashion and entertainment writer. He blogs at stylesupplement.wordpress.com and tweets at @Usama_Hamayun
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2013.
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apparently, iman ahmed showed at fpw last year. hence the noms. even so, given that everyone is supposed to submit a portfolio documenting their ramp, print activity in the past year, her nomination in even ONE, much less two categories is suspect. body focus doesnt do any print work. EVER. ive never seen a BFM shoot in a magazine from the past 5 years. elan, shehla chatoor, sania are ALL veryy prominent in that regard, and ultimately, this was a case of a veteran being awarded for being a veteran, not for being relevant to the fashion world. journos like aamna isani really have zero understanding of what comprises eligibility for the luxies and yet they are put onthe jury so that they can in turn help nominate people who otherwise wouldnt be nominated. i commented on her(isanis) blog when the noms came out, questioning some nominations, in the lawn category for example mahnous totally unknown, being nominated and her response was its young, deserves a break and LSAs are abt rewarding design not sales. in her roundup of the lsas however she stated that sana safinaz deserved to win because of their superior sales. once journos and sponsors start clean up their act, only then will the lsas be called credible.
@The Only Normal Person Here.:
You can blame it to Fakhuru Bahi and Punjab Police.
The awards were evidently rigged.