Being fashionable in Lahore

The first Lahore Fashion Week showed the city at its liveliest, belying every Pakistan cliché. The clothes, the collections, the pounding music had a rhythm like no other.

The e-mail says, ‘Please do not disclose the venue. Please carry your pass at all times’ – not for front row, for security. And days after arrival, troopers in black commando fatigues smile benevolently and follow us to and from the venue.

I am in Lahore. And this is the first Lahore fashion week. In a gated, high walled club, the tents – yes – there are tents in every part of the world, almost at every fashion week, have come up. There are swathes of black cloth, not so anorexic models and lots of wispy, and not so wispy, Dunhill smoke.

Everyone looks good, talks smooth, smells nice. One or two, to start with, look apprehensive. This is fashion of courage.

Attending a fashion week in Pakistan brings out the schizophrenic best in me. Should I ask if people are afraid? Should I applaud the resilience? Should I burst the bubble?

This is the unseen Pakistan. This is the Pakistan to break every Pakistan cliché. I am here to see the city of the restless night and in Lahore, Noor Rahman, with her kohl and cocky comeback, educationist and sushi and meethi pan connoisseur, opens doors to parties that last till 10.00 a.m., and says she wants to come to Delhi.

I ask, everyone, do you party to forget? Is the runway your escape route? There is no one answer to that.

Sadaf Malaterre, she of inescapable gentility and Sweeney Todd hair, makes dresses that slip by like Amelie in Wonderland. Her mischief dyes and delectable cut and fall elicit gasps, even applause, from that editor from hell, my acerbic dearest friend, Xpoze editor Andleeb Rana.

Sadaf tells me she is not sure how to react with the “Pakistan fashion defies Taliban” headlines. “This is my life. I wake up everyday. I go to work. I work hard. I come home. I try to have a nice life. I do not wake up every morning and think I am defying terrorists. I don't think anybody does.” And so they do.

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