Journalists Mehr F. Husayn and Saad Sarfraz Sheikh explore Pakistan’s history through its fashion trends in “Pakistan: A Fashionable History”.
The idea for the book started out very differently. in 2017, Husayn was dropping her child off to school, bleary-eyed and tired when she noticed another mom – dressed to the nines but looking exactly like what Husayn herself was feeling.
“I stared at her, slouched in my car, thinking why is she dressed like that, and who is telling us to dress this way?”
That day, she approached Sheikh, a photojournalist, to embark on a project to document Pakistan’s fashion industry, the first of its kind.
“We wanted to do something historical and anecdotal,” Sheikh said.
#LISTEN: "The #fashion industry has a lot to offer if it cleans itself up," says @mfhusayn, co-author of the book '#Pakistan: A Fashionable History.'
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Read special by @SabahBanoMalik: https://t.co/xeiZV25dpk pic.twitter.com/nrIuW5fYQH— Arab News Pakistan (@arabnewspk) August 29, 2020
The two journalists soon realized there was so much more to the project than they had imagined. It wasn’t just designers they had to interview. Rather they needed to look for many more people behind the scenes, including makeup artists, models and old magazine prints.
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“We discovered there was an entirely different story, and the people behind the scenes were the real movers and shakers of the industry,” said Husain.
In Karachi’s old bazaars and bookstores, Sheikh found himself a slew of archival material. In looking for key publications such as the Herald and Newsline, Sheikh was able to access Newsline’s archive before the legendary journal shuttered last year.
“I spent seven hours in their basement photographing old photos one by one,” he said, “This allowed me to develop an amazing set of archives that is not just time capsules of fashion but culture as well.”
Two years in the making, the book has faced countless setbacks. It was originally going to be printed by an Indian publishing house. However, Pakistan stopped imports from across the border following India’s revoking of Kashmir’s autonomy last August. The ban included books. This prompted the pair to publish the book on their own.
A Stylish History
Their coffee table book is packed with first-person accounts from photographers, models, hair and makeup artists, magazine editors, and legendary Pakistani designers such as Maheen Khan and Rizwan Beyg, all of whom played key roles in building the industry as we know it today.
Although it started with a quest to learn more about the history of fashion, the book is also a narrative of the history of Pakistan. “The fashion industry of yesteryear has contributed a lot,” Husain said.
“If you look at what people were consuming back then and at the history, this country has had, you would understand Pakistan’s impact on South Asia.”
via Arab News
