The fashion industry is relatively new in Pakistan. Dress designing started somewhere in the late 80’s and boomed into a full-fledged industry in the mid 90’s with thousands of satisfied customers. Fashion gained prominence due to media projection.
To promote dress designing, institutes have been set up in the private sector. The cities of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad have become a hub of fashion designing and all dress designers have opened outlets in these major cities.
Encouraged by the tremendous response locally, the dress designers have opened outlets abroad as well. At this time, Pakistani fashion is a combination of traditional and modern dresses and it has become the cultural identification of Pakistan.
The creativity and hard work has made the designers much sought after both locally and internationally. Pakistani dress designers are now invited to participate in international fashion shows held in India, Milan, New York, London and Paris the Mecca of the fashion world.
Their exquisite designs and sensational use of colors have won laurels and have brought Pakistan on the fashion map of the world. Pakistan Fashion Design Council based in Lahore organizes Fashion Week and Fashion Pakistan based in Karachi organizes fashion shows in that city.
Credit goes to Ayesha Tammy Haq, a British- trained lawyer and chief executive of Fashion Pakistan, who came up with the idea for Pakistan’s first fashion week, held in November 2009. Pakistan has made some real progress in the field of fashion designing. Dress designing industry is no more a small niche.
Some designers who have made Pakistan proud and are worth mentioning are:
1. Nilofer Shahid
2. Maheen Khan
3. Sana and Safinaz
4. Rizwan Beyg
5. Amir Adnan and Huma Adnan
6. Deepak Perwani
7. Kamiyar Rokni
8. Maheen Kardar
9. Sadia Mirza
10. Aijaz Aslam
