WORLD> Asia-Pacific
Pakistan's fashionistas defy Taliban
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-07 16:54

Pakistan's fashionistas defy Taliban
Model Mehreen Sayed takes to the catwalk with a creation by Pakistani designer Feeha Noor Jamshed labeled Teejays during Fashion Pakistan Week in Karachi on November 6, 2009. The four day long event, which was rescheduled twice due to security concerns, features over 30 Pakistani designers, organizers said.[Agencies] 
While many of the city's 12 million people live in slums, hip cafes and restaurants in wealthy neighborhoods draw sophisticated crowds of young men and women into the early hours, more often than not speaking English with each other and wearing Western dress.

While the shows in Karachi resembled other fashion weeks in other parts of the world, there were no foreign designers or buyers. The organizers decided not to invite them given the precarious security situation.

"Who is going to come here with such negative stuff going on?" said Tabassum Mughal, a young designer who employs about 30 people. "Those who are here already are leaving."

Textiles make up some 60 percent of Pakistan exports and are worth around $12 billion dollars a year. The country's cotton and silks are among the finest in the world. But the industry has failed to grew in recent years amid political unrest, violence and chronic power shortages.

As if on cue, a power cut during the fashion week's opening evening left the hall in darkness for several minutes.

The fashion industry represents a tiny fraction of the country's textile exports.

"We are still doing the 30 dollar a dozen T-shirt business. There is no value added," said Haq. "We should be employing millions of people, not hundreds of thousands of them."

Designers presented a mix of clothes, some drawing on traditional Pakistani outfits and tribal motifs; others that had little or no sign of traditional aesthetics. In a culture where most all women dress modestly, many outfits were too racy for local tastes.

"This does not represent what we are as a people," designer Ayesha Tahir Masood said. "Only 0.001 percent of Pakistani women would wear these clothes, and then only in a controlled environment when drunk out of their minds."