Making moving sculptures

KARACHI:
A former student of sculpture-making at Central St. Martins, 27-year-old Mahgul Rashid launched her brand last year in April at PFDC. Rashid believes her artistic capabilities come from the background her matriarchs have delved in. Her maternal grandmother Nasreen Shaikh is a fashion designer in her own right, known for couture. Her great grandmother Mrs. Aftab Kari was the pioneer of block-printing here in Pakistan.

While speaking to Rashid, one notices that Mahgul wholeheartedly believes there is great potential in collaboration between designers and karigaars (embroiderers). “The relationship between both entities develops side by side. There is a lot of experimentation involved, and I want and stress on the fact that my pieces should be so perfect, that they look like live sculptures!”

Rashid says she puts a lot of her experiences to her designed outfits. Referring to the Ayal collection, which she has brought over to The House of Ensemble here in Karachi, she says, “Ayal is primarily a luxury prêt collection, and we wanted to come to Karachi in order to figure out what it is that works wonders in the city.”

There is a lot of thread work in the collection, alongside nasqshi ka kaam. One would also see both quilting work and cutwork.  The collection has mostly used handwork.

Going back to her roots, she says her grandmother, Nasreen Shaikh, has been a mentor to her: “Her sense of work and colour aesthetics are what I admire the most, I would trust her blindly with my own outfits, and wear them happily.”

For her own designs, Rashid tries to study people, sometimes girls standing outside Kinnaird College. Measuring how they walk and what will suit them, is what she fuses on to her designs. She insists her outfits, “must be walking sculptures that I present to the world. I want to make the wearer happy, for that is the exciting aspect of being a human being.”

Prêt.: Rs7,000 to Rs35,000

Luxury prêt: Rs35,000 to Rs250,000

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2014.