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An eye on fashion at the LSAs
STYLE is the one word that keeps these awards going and what
would style be without
the fashion industry? The show put five different collections
on display,
all adhering to the theme 'metallics'. And while the fashion nominations
at the
Lux Style Awards continue to be controversial, after years of
camp-debacles and tug of wars the results were comparatively balanced
this time.
Where there were some awards that seemed a result of misjudging,
there were others that were spot on fair.
By Aamna Haider Isani
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Hits
and misses
HITS
Best Model, female was a match between Neha Ahmad and Fayeza Ansari
and Neha's win was as welcome as any other. She has been prolific
last year, she looks great in print and despite her lack of height,
Neha walks the runway well. Her acceptance speech was refreshingly
shy and humble. She started off with one exclamation, "Finally!"
and then holding her hand over her mouth as she couldn't stop grinning,
she continued to thank the people who had supported her. Best Model,
male again was a strong tie between Ameer Zeb Khan and Adnan Malik
and though Adnan Malik's profile is higher than Ameer's because of
his presence on television, Ameer has been more of a face of fashion
in the last two to three years. It was pleasant to see how articulate
he was in his acceptance speech. He thanked the world and of course,
as expected, paid tribute to Ocular and Khawar Riaz, the man who had
groomed him. More than Ameer, this achievement actually belongs to
Khawar, as except for the one year when Emaad Irfani won, Ocular models
have been walking away with this award year after year. |
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| Though
it was shocking that Rizwan ul Haq wasn't even nominated for the Best
Fashion Photographer category, it was at the same time a happy moment
for Deevees to get the credit where credit was due. Their work has
been creative and deserved to be acknowledged. |
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There was absolutely
no doubt that the Creative Team at Nabila's would win Best Hair and
Makeup Artist. No one styles fashion as well as they do, and with
Mubashir Khan (the man who styled Carnival De Couture in December
and did it fabulously well) pulling out of competition, there was
no competition left. The set up at Nabila's has grown tremendously
in the past one year, from the opening of Nail Express and the salon
in Lahore to the creation of Zinc and they were a cinch to pick up
their fourth award. One hopes for stronger competition next year.
Best Pret was one category in which all five contestants came with
a lot of strength but the competition was a three way tug between
Karma, Sara Shahid and Sonya Battla. This was a tough one. Sara Shahid,
though strong on design, has made a bigger mark this year as she has
just opened her flagship store in Lahore and has recently launched
the Sublime Women Entreuprener Project. If the award recognized design
excellence alone, then it belonged to Sonya Battla. But striking a
great balance between design, quality, market presence and branding,
Karma was a well deserving win for prêt a porter. |
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MISSES
Last year Khaadi won the award for Best Retail Brand and it was justified
as there was no fashion clothing brand that could match the identity
they had built with fashionable textiles. This year however, Crossroads
was the natural winner. Crossroads brought out great collections with
great campaigns in 2006. Their clothing follows international trends
and it is as affordable as any retail brand should be. With presence
in more than three cities and fantastic marketing to boot, Crossroads
are spot on and deserved to win. |
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The second
most nail biting category was Best Couture. One thing must be said
– had the 10 Years Plus category not existed, Rizwan Beyg would
have won this hands down. There is nothing any designer created last
year that topped his Carnivale collection. However, with Rizwan nominated
in 10 Years Plus, the award belonged to either Saadia Mirza or Nomi
Ansari. Saadia because she really came into her own last year and
how! With immaculately planned and executed solo shows in both Karachi
and Lahore, Saadia Mirza played the fashion game in 2006 as it should
be played. She has a fabulous understanding of fashion and is one
of the few designers who knows the difference between couture and
bridals. Nomi Ansari, because he comes up with collections that are
difficult to forget. His strength is in his originality and he was
original last year and has never won an award.
Hassan
Sheheryar Yasin is most certainly one of the most prolific and successful
designers in Pakistan but he is in no way the best. The last collection
one remembers from the house of HSY is Virasat and that was two year
ago. Everything that has followed has been a reinterpretation of basically
the same concept. HSY's next best came with the CARE shows that took
place in 2007 where he wowed with his R2W line, not couture. Last
year, HSY didn't do anything new. B-HSY and R2W are his achievements
this
year.
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Jury
query
The Lux Style Awards office has been going around in a vicious spin
cycle not of their own choosing. They've suffered a Lahore bias and
a Karachi bias and they've suffered the divide of the two fashion
councils too. They're accused of biases and rigging if the jury is
announced, and the same happens even when it isn't. Whoever loses
blames it on biased voting and the general feeling is that the selection
of winners depends on the jury, not professional excellence. |
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This year the
jurors' names were not made public but inside information revealed
that they were several people from the industry and media. They down-listed
five names in all categories and then selected one winner in each.
The names of these jurors still have not been confirmed. The Awards
Office chose to keep their names anonymous to avoid controversy but
that decision alone got a hundred more tongues wagging than before.
A couple of names like Raheel Rao, Sarah Gandapur and Imran Kureishi
did crop up but there were no confirmations.
It's a tough job finding people in Pakistan who not only know their
fashion but can judge it without a slant. But it has to be done and
it has to be transparent for the judging process to have and maintain
credibility. That said, the jury has to come from within the industry
and until the camps, the biases and the monopolies exist, there aren't
many people who will be able to step up for a fair voting. It's a
competition by the industry for the industry. And when it comes to
the fashion categories, this year too, the vicious cycle continues.
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However, it's high time this process changed. Fashion should be judged
the same way music, film and television is. The jury should not change
every year, in fact their identities should be revealed. That transparency
is the only thing that'll ensure fairness. The voting should follow
jury discussion and analysis instead of emails. It can be done and
seeing that these awards have been fairer than the previous two years,
there is hope that they will get even better in 2008! |
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