Thursday, July 21, 2011
A Pakistani’s fashion adventure
Iman Pasha, a senior stylist for Dubai’s exclusive luxury retail group, Boutique 1, and the fashion and art director of Middle Eastern magazine HauteMuse, likes to make each and every one of her clients feel like royalty in Dubai
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Iman Pasha was born in the United States and grew up in Pakistan, studying in Islamabad. At the age of 16, she moved to the United Kingdom, where she went on to study philosophy, before obtaining a master’s degree in international journalism with a focus on fashion journalism.
Having been a lifelong devotee to fashion, she felt ready in 2010 to start her own eponymous fashion consultancy in London. Services include personal shopping and styling, consultancy for aspiring fashion brands, styling for fashion editorials in high-end U.K. and Middle Eastern publications, as well as freelance fashion.
In the summer of 2011, Dubai’s exclusive luxury retail group, Boutique 1, handpicked her to be their senior stylist and head the private shopping division. She has also been fashion and art director of the high-fashion, Middle Eastern magazine HauteMuse.
Her Pakistani heritage has inspired her love of color and accessorizing.
She started coming to the Middle East for work about a year ago. Loving the region and its fashion scene, she finally took the plunge and recently moved to Dubai.
She has styled many of the region’s royals and said Elie Saab was a favored designer in the Middle East, especially around the peak wedding season.
Women of a certain age in the region often prefer established brands such as Chanel, Roland Mouret and Alai, while the younger crowd tends to gravitate toward more emerging, fun brands such as Jonathan Saunders, Roksanda Illincic and the Row.
But Pasha said Erdem was also a hot favorite in the Middle East, and his Turkish-influenced designs go down well.
“The Middle East is all about exclusivity and the chance to own something special and unique that few other people own,” Pasha said. “Kuwaiti women are generally very fashion savvy and into trends. I have, however, met, shopped for and styled many amazingly stylish women from across the Middle East – Qatar, Saudi Arabia and across the Gulf region.”
In her experience, Middle Eastern women are a lot more impulsive and certain about what they want. They are less afraid of color than Western women, love embellishments on garments and are keen to experiment.
Every designer wants a piece of the Middle Eastern pie. It is a very lucrative and wealthy market for a wide spectrum of brands, and they are all competing for a place in this vibrant and exciting marketplace. It has a thriving retail sector, partly due to the level of disposable income in the region and also due to the importance given to fashion by the region’s socialites.
“There is a heavy emphasis on abayas and brands like Das have really found a fresh way to create something unique within the abaya market. Rather than the classic all-over black, Das has added color, lush fabrics and lots of small detailing to the garments,” Pasha said.
Last year’s devastating floods in the South Asian nation really hit home for Pasha. In response, she planned an exclusive shopping evening with the Matches Marylebone store in London to help in flood relief in her homeland.
She supported a charity very close to her family called Behbud, which provides shelter and work in the form of craftsmanship to underprivileged women and families.
Having been a lifelong devotee to fashion, she felt ready in 2010 to start her own eponymous fashion consultancy in London. Services include personal shopping and styling, consultancy for aspiring fashion brands, styling for fashion editorials in high-end U.K. and Middle Eastern publications, as well as freelance fashion.
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Her Pakistani heritage has inspired her love of color and accessorizing.
She started coming to the Middle East for work about a year ago. Loving the region and its fashion scene, she finally took the plunge and recently moved to Dubai.
She has styled many of the region’s royals and said Elie Saab was a favored designer in the Middle East, especially around the peak wedding season.
Women of a certain age in the region often prefer established brands such as Chanel, Roland Mouret and Alai, while the younger crowd tends to gravitate toward more emerging, fun brands such as Jonathan Saunders, Roksanda Illincic and the Row.
But Pasha said Erdem was also a hot favorite in the Middle East, and his Turkish-influenced designs go down well.
“The Middle East is all about exclusivity and the chance to own something special and unique that few other people own,” Pasha said. “Kuwaiti women are generally very fashion savvy and into trends. I have, however, met, shopped for and styled many amazingly stylish women from across the Middle East – Qatar, Saudi Arabia and across the Gulf region.”
In her experience, Middle Eastern women are a lot more impulsive and certain about what they want. They are less afraid of color than Western women, love embellishments on garments and are keen to experiment.
Every designer wants a piece of the Middle Eastern pie. It is a very lucrative and wealthy market for a wide spectrum of brands, and they are all competing for a place in this vibrant and exciting marketplace. It has a thriving retail sector, partly due to the level of disposable income in the region and also due to the importance given to fashion by the region’s socialites.
“There is a heavy emphasis on abayas and brands like Das have really found a fresh way to create something unique within the abaya market. Rather than the classic all-over black, Das has added color, lush fabrics and lots of small detailing to the garments,” Pasha said.
Shopping evening for the flood victims
In addition to her activities dressing the Gulf’s socialites, U.S.-Pakistani fashion designer Iman Pasha has also organized a high-end sale for Pakistan’s flood victims.Last year’s devastating floods in the South Asian nation really hit home for Pasha. In response, she planned an exclusive shopping evening with the Matches Marylebone store in London to help in flood relief in her homeland.
She supported a charity very close to her family called Behbud, which provides shelter and work in the form of craftsmanship to underprivileged women and families.
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