All hands on the fashion deck

Catching up with PFDC Chairperson Sehyr Saigol as she juggles between recent PRA crackdown and organising PLBW 2015

LAHORE:

As the Pakistan Fashion Design Council rolls up their sleeves to host this year’s PFDC L’Oréal Paris Bridal Week (PLBW), there couldn’t be a more ‘fitting’ time to see how the council has gotten into the swing of things. Despite having her hands full with the recent Punjab Revenue Authority crackdown on fashion outlets and organising one of the most anticipated showcases in the country, PLBW 2015, Sehyr Saigol, chairperson of the PFDC, continues to raise the ante in fashion.

With the council gearing up for its 12th fashion week with PLBW 2015, to kickstart from September 16, The Express Tribune talks to the woman of the hour to explore how she has managed to create a blueprint for seamless productions over the years.

Saigol has been running the gamut from supervising design elements, timings and styling to helping new designers put out their collections to allotting seats to the country’s fashion frontrunners, all of whom feel they belong in the front row. “Fashion weeks are multi-faceted and that’s always challenging, especially when you’re a perfectionist,” says the multitasking Saigol.

Read: 22 independent labels to shine at PLBW 2015

Having been the first lady of fashion in Lahore, she has over 30 years of experience dressing a niche clientele in the city through her label Libas. She also launched an eponymous glossy, the editor of which is her daughter Sabene Saigol. “At this point, I’m wearing three hats – the PFDC, Libas and fashion,” she adds. But for Saigol, the key is to delegate.



Since the inception of the PFDC, the council has aimed at altering the mindset that fashion is just a form of entertainment. Saigol shares how she brought their vision of establishing fashion as a business to fruition. “We’ve set up fashion incubators, webinars between European and Australian fashion experts and our designers, and established a standalone, the PFDC Boulevard store in Delhi – a first for Pakistan,” she notes. “We’ve taken our council to fashion week in Milan to observe [how they work] and network and we’ve taken our designers to the exclusive prêt–à–porter feminine in Paris to sell and to the Middle East.”

To further their agenda, this year’s PLBW will feature a separate solo show for established designers, and separate shows for emerging talent and new designers, so that each category gets a chance to showcase their talent and get assessed accordingly. “Even within the luxury and bridal shows, for instance, we pick and choose who gets what position and day to showcase on,” explains Saigol. “This process is entirely based on our edit of their collections and how we feel their aesthetics blend with or stand out from the designer showing before and after,” she further says. PLBW 2015 will also comprise a new bridal designers segment, which will introduce two designers Mahgul and Suffuse by Sana Yasir, selected to show edited collections. This category has been introduced for bridal designers, who have been designing for up to two years but who are, perhaps, not ready for full shows.

The PFDC has to their credit introducing many successful names to the runway, including Sania Maskatiya, Misha Lakhani, Saira Shakira and Republic by Omer Farooq. In their debut show segment, they’ve launched the now fashion bigwigs Ali Xeeshan and Mohsin Ali, among others, and nurtured rising talent, such as Zonia, Akif, Mahgul and Seher Tareen.

Sehyr Saigol

The council formerly brought in media, consultants and buyers from abroad and worked alongside the government-based Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) in the hope of building a foreign market for local fashion. Saigol feels that prior to focusing on distribution routes overseas, the designers need to discipline production, retail and design within Pakistan. “We should look towards taking our fashion global once we’ve catered to, cultivated and designed for local retail. Once we become adept at this, we can work towards that,” she says.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th,  2015.

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