When you watch the upcoming Disney movie Cinderella, you may notice the intricately embroidered coats worn by the male leads. That’s Maheen Khan’s handiwork, the designer we best know for her insouciant high-street brand ‘Gulabo’ and elegant luxury prêt a la the ‘House of Maheen’ but who also dabbles into Hollywood on the side.
This, as many may know, is hardly Maheen’s first tryst with embellishing apparel for the West. It all started in 1997, when she assisted BAFTA award-winning costume designer Diane Holmes in creating Ratti Jinnah and Fatima Jinnah’s wardrobes for the movie Jinnah. This lead to the creation of the ‘Embroidery House’, a collaboration where Diane would commission the embellishments of costumes and set-designs to Maheen.
Their first job was for the BBC serial The Artistocats, followed by embroideries for the Catherine Walker & Co design atelier’s seasonal collections. Recent projects include embellishing costumes for the movies Alexander, Snow White and the Huntsmen and Maleficient, as well as a regal coat and waistcoat set for King Louis the XIth’s wax sculpture at London’s Madame Tussaud’s.
“The coats for Cinderella are all hand-crafted,” says Maheen, “although there are some jobs that have required machine embroideries. In Alexander, for instance, a lot of the sets had to be extensively machine embroidered.”
Hand-crafted work for coats to be shown in Cinderella. PHOTO: PUBLICITY
And while Maheen enjoys the process of creating these predominantly period embroideries, she admits that it’s also a tough learning experience.
“Very detailed instructions, along with the marked fabric, come with the final order,” she explains. “The sampling is where all my skills come into play as I have to interpret the designs in at least three to six ways, if not more. There are strict quality controls and even stricter timelines.”
A glimpse of the finished product in the trailer in the movie. PHOTO: PUBLICITY
Even so, Maheen’s collaborations with the West emphasise on an avenue that is ripe for other local designers to also explore. While our nascent designing fraternity may still need to get a grasp over the standardisation of sizes and the fine finishings that are an absolute necessity for retailing ready-to-wear internationally, there is one thing that Pakistan has long nailed when it comes to design: our craft. From rilli to kanta, machine embroideries to tediously worked kamdani and marori, block-prints to dip-dyed bases, Pakistan’s inherent craftsmanship is indelibly stand-out and unique. And while the Western world may already be commissioning leather creations and basic denim and cotton apparel from our textile industries, it is yet to wake up completely to the possibilities that our embroideries have to offer.
Trade Development Authority of Pakistan’s Secretary Rabiya Javeri Agha observed once that craftsmanship in the Western world is dying.
“Their workforce is gravitating towards design houses rather than the creation of the actual embellishments,” she said. “This is where countries like ours stand to gain, with our authentic handiwork.”
Regal coat and waistcoat set for King Louis the XIth’s wax sculpture at London’s Madame Tussaud’s. PHOTO: PUBLICITY
Whenever Pakistani craftsmanship has come to the fore internationally, it’s been a hit. Handbag label ‘Polly&me’ made waves with its traditional Chitrali handiwork. Earlier this year, Amal Alamuddin (aka, Mrs George Clooney) randomly picked up local label Inaaya’s traditional necklace and was spotted wearing it. And Maheen Khan, even as she puts the finishing touches to her Karachi-centric finale for the upcoming Fashion Pakistan Week, continues to provide her embroidering services for bona fide Hollywood. This may be a sign of bigger, better things to come.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ