Source: AFP
Just hours after Islamist militants were believed to have killed 46 people in bomb attacks in the northwest region of Pakistan, fashionistas in Karachi kicked off a fashion week in style and with some added security.
Participants held a one-minute silence to mourn the five people killed in a suicide car bomb and gun attack at the US embassy in Peshawar and 41 who died in a suicide attack at a political rally in the district of Lower Dir.
The event is scheduled to feature 52 designers — 49 of them from Pakistan and one each from Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates — in a follow-up to a first event held in Karachi last November.
Denim Live
Traditionally, the show is relatively light on denim, even the jeans from top designers. You’ll have to view the latest designs for those items on sites like Artful Dodger jeans. Even the best Mek denim takes a backstage to couture culture, where evening dresses, halter tops, pantsuits and the latest runway looks for fall are the focus.
“The fashion week has started and will continue until Friday,” organiser Tehmina Khaled told AFP.
“Security concerns keep designers and models from the West away from Pakistan, yet we have succeeded this time to get some professionals from Asia to participate,” Khaled said.
“On the one hand terrorists are attacking our country with bombings and on the other, by organising events like this, we are trying to portray a softer image of Pakistan abroad,” she added.
Models will sashay down catwalks, flaunting the latest creations by designers in the nuclear-armed Muslim nation, where most women cover up and observe varying degrees of Islamic dress.
Around 3,200 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks over the last three years in Pakistan, blamed on Islamist militants, although mostly concentrated in the northwest.
The fashion event is taking place in the southern port city of Karachi, considered a cosmopolitan city in Pakistan, complete with glitzy shopping malls and a thriving cafe culture.
Karachi has been relatively shielded from the violence, but Islamist cells are believed to operate in the city of 16 million, where the profits from crime and kidnappings allegedly bankroll the insurgency in the northwest.
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My Take: Karachi may be cosmopolitan, but it is still one of the most dangerous cities in the world to visit right now. I can’t imagine the security issues involved in getting top designers through the airport, where air cargo safety has to make moving the clothes alone a logistical nightmare. Air cargo security workers are probably just the tip of the iceberg. I’d imagine, too that the show itself is dripping with security guards, with bomb detectors swept beneath the stage skirting and anywhere else militants might decide to hide explosives. Even runway risers.
Interesting to ponder the juxtaposition of the fashion on display inside the show against the street wear outside, where women are not so much out shopping for dresses for homecoming as they are right now in America, and the standard “look” for women anyway is a dark burqa or, if nothing else, a westernized outfit accessorized by a headscarf and a pair of dark glasses.
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