Shan-e-Pakistan is here to stay

As three days of Pak-Indo collaborative fashion, music, culture, the culinary arts and retail come to a close in Lahore on March 22, Huma Nassr, the powerhouse behind the Shaan-e-Pakistan platform, proudly announces another season of the event, in New Delhi by the end of the year.

“We are very grateful to all our partners in Pakistan and India and especially our sponsors and the officials from the government of Pakistan, for making our vision to unite the culture prowess of both countries on one common platform, come to reality,” said Huma Nassr

Huma further invites all fellow Pakistan’s to collaborate in the next edition, “We also openly invite the government, more event professionals, the fashion councils and communities et al to collaborate with us to work hand in hand to make this platform grow even bigger: after all the vision and spirit is for collaboration on all levels.”

Kya Dilli, Kya Lahore witnessed all the ingredients come together for what was a massive celebration of unity and trade. It wasn’t only an event, rather an opportunity to network and interact, out of which a lot of exciting collaborations may come out and a lot of ‘firsts’ were achieved for both the countries.

Shaan-e-Pakistan also for the first time brought to Pakistan high end fashion designers such as Jyoti SachdevIyer, Bibi Russell, Studio AV, and Elisha Wadhwani from India and Bangladesh on the same platform alongside leading Pakistani brands and upcoming designers/high street labels such as Republic, Brahtii, Rang Ja and Asifa & Nabeel.

The fashion show was directed by Prasad Bidapa, leading Indian choreographer to design stars such as RohitBal, TarunTahiliani, Manish Malhotra among others – it was his first experience in Pakistan. It was also the first opportunity for Pakistani designers to work with such a stalwart from India. Prasad now looks forward to collaborate with a Pakistani show director for the next installment in India and also discussed working more collaboratively across other fashion events with event planners such as Jalal Salahuddin

Adding another feather to Pakistan’s cap, iconic designer Bibi Russell from Bangladesh showed an interest in inviting Ahmed Bilal from Pakistan to show case at Rajasthan Fashion Week having seen his work at the show.

It was Zeenat Aman’s first time in Lahore and she mentioned widely to all that Pakistan is an exciting place to work in and is open to developing more of a working relationship with this country.

Rekha Bhardwaj also had the chance to interact with artists such as Atif Aslam and Meesha Shafi, one to one. VJ Andy of Channel V in India along with Anoushey Ashraf co-hosted the events with such unity.

The event allowed Pakistan and India to realise the potential of working together more, “We were also very happy to have celebrated March 23 with our Indian delegates and thank them for embracing the spirit and hospitality of Pakistan,”added Huma Nassr

Talking about the delays and mismanagement Huma Nassr said, “As we grow, we also learn: with the sheer logistics involved in putting this platform together such as visas, permissions and relying on flight times et al, we are constructively learning to improve and progress.”

“My hope is that everyone can unite to put our best foot forward in India and in Pakistan as Shaan-e-Pakistan is here to stay,” said Huma Nassr.