Undercover: The Herald Annual Fashion Debate: Are Pakistani Fashion Weeks Translating Into Sales?

Okay, so I went kind of anonymously into this debate. Sadly, it was moderated. More than half my comments never got posted. Here are some of the highlights, I took screenshots along the way. I am 'B' by the way.. 'B' for blogger, lol..

Panelists included Zahir Rahimtoola, Ayesha Tammy Haq and Shamaeel Ansari. Guest 'debaters' (for lack of a better word) were Feeha Jamshed, Frieha Altaf and Umair Tabani.

Zahir points out one of the biggest problems, that there is no consistency and

 lack of seasonal collections.

At this point I said that we look should at our local Pakistani audience, if TV dramas are converting to sales then we should rethink the fashion week strategy, the council however has set their respective fashion weeks as exclusive events and may not want to cheapen it in anyway, but if we are talking purely sales then maybe we need to segment the market and target differently. Unfortunately, this comment was not posted.

businesses*, typo

Ayesha Tammy Haq also suggested that it is time to rethink the fashion format if 

thinking purely in terms of sales.

All in all, it was a very interesting debate. I think the fashion weeks here have a long way to go before they actually start resulting in hardcore sales - they are still fairly new and our designers are doing very well for now.. at their own pace. I do hope however, the pace picks up and on a more international level which I am sure will happen in the near future. Fashion is fast in this day and age, in fact every single thing is, so the designers need to be quick with their collections and be accessible if they want to sell. There are quite a few issues that were pointed out, and one of the biggest issues I feel is the lack of professionalism and the fact that most local brand names are a one man show. It is clear that the more successful designers that have high sales are ones that have a few people on their team. A designer is purely a designer, it is too tough to manage everything else, even if you have a fashion design degree and an MBA. 

There is no doubt I am very proud of how far the fashion industry has come, and there is no denying the tremendous local talent. We have gained recognition worldwide but we have a lot of potential within our industry to exceed what designers are doing globally. I think and hope that it is just a matter of time. 

As per the voting results - it shows that majority voted that Pakistani fashion weeks do not result in sales. 

Your thoughts on the debate?

xxx Alyzeh

PS - Thank you Aamna Isani, I have learned a lot about the industry in your Fashion Media 101 class.