Business of fashion is a collaboration of the design element, our heritage and the corporate world - Chairperson PFDC

Fashion has evolved into many dimensions in Pakistan of late, and its contribution to economy is growing - but how much, it is not known. Nonetheless, as fashion industry takes its steps towards becoming a contributing part to the economy, the concept of 'Business of fashion' has started gaining importance. To get some hold of how the fashion business is flourishing, BR Research met with Sehyr Saigol, Pakistan Fashion Design Council's (PFDC) Chairperson.
Being one of Pakistan's most powerful forces within the fashion industry, Sehyr Saigol is a well-known designer with over 30 years of experience. She launched her magazine Libas International, Pakistan's oldest and leading fashion magazine, in England 28 years ago. She is also the founder and chairperson of the Pakistan Fashion Design Council established in 2006 where she brought together the brightest forces in Pakistani fashion design, business and retail.
Following is the edited excerpt of a very open conversation of Sehyr Saigol with BR Research
BR Research: What has been PFDC's role and how Pakistan's fashion industry has evolved over the last few years?
Sehyr Saigol: PFDC's vision has been to institutionalize the business of fashion. While there is an inspiring plethora of new and established design talent in Pakistan, there is a pressing need to tap into this rich palette of design creativity, formalising the necessary infrastructure required for promotion and retail.
One of the major challenges that our industry has faced is the lack of a proper infrastructure, which has been a significant obstacle in the way of growth and development of Pakistani fashion and design. Pakistan has a rich heritage whether it's the stitches, the embroideries from different areas of the country. On the other hand, the manufacturers and textile mills have the capacity to produce. We come somewhere in the middle with the design element; the designers are creative people, and therefore our whole ideology is to be the link between the two parties - one that lacks the design element but has the infrastructure and the other that lacked the infrastructure but has a beautiful platform of our heritage.
We call it the business of fashion when the design element gets woven with the crafts, and then into collaboration with the corporate world to give us a value added product. PFDC is working tirelessly to create this infrastructure through forging synergies between the fashion industry and corporate entities, the media, the cottage craft industry and textile/ value-added manufacturers. All of this is happening today, and many designers like Khaadi, and MARIA.B. are great examples of how Pakistani fashion brands have developed their businesses to great success.
BRR: What's the key role of having Fashion Weeks?
SS: It is true that Pakistan's Fashion Industry was a very niche market, and that it is not formalised. Many designers have still not entered the retail side. But ever since the Fashion Weeks have come into being, which is about eight years now, things have started changing. Speaking of Pakistan Fashion Design Council (PFDC) Fashion Weeks, we have been consistently following the international calendar ie spring and fall, and I believe that within two years the discipline has set in. We have had amazing results, and it became necessary for us to move onto fashion weeks for us to view what we are doing and have that kind of exposure.
For the first few fashion weeks, we received nothing but criticism. Then the things started changing as the market got more aware. Then these lawns started showing interest. Now these retail outlets and lawn manufacturers are in queues for their slots with us. This year the lawn market had around 140 brands, and numerous numbers of collaboration compared to previous years, and we believe we were the ones that initially provided this platform.
What must be known to all is that we continue to have our categories and separation. We are about the promotion of the designers and the awareness that we feel people must have. We had three main categories in our PFDC Fashion Week starting this year: Luxury/Prêt designers, High-street fashion, and Lawn and Retail. And it is all indigenous.
We also have our flagship store in Mall 1 on the Main Boulevard in Lahore where we stock and also help young talented designers take off.
BRR: So what's the key trend in your move to institutionalize the business of fashion?
SS: We at PFDC have taken the task to bring about the marriage of design with infrastructure. It is time that the corporate world has to open its eyes and grow beyond one dollar T-shirt and understand value addition. Fortunately fashion weeks do that. It's just amazing that these collaboration that are close to our ideology and belief, have started picking up pace with many big designers joining hands with these textile corporations and mill owners. Majority of the textile houses are eager to joining hands with an acclaimed designer, and speaking of 'Lawn', they know that collaborating is their best shot in surviving the brimming lawn market now. Some recent collaborations that you would see include Sapphire, House of Ittehad, and So Kamal etc. Of those who are not collaborating, there is consciousness but absolute reluctant to give the designer the name because they do not recognise that this is a critical part of the final value added product, which is otherwise just volume and nothing else.
BRR: The industry is undocumented. How Is PFDC addressing this issue?
SS: We take it as a big challenge, and we do understand that numbers are necessary. However, one must understand that our role is restricted to getting the whole industry institutionalised; we cannot monitor their tax situation or their revenues. Also, majority of the companies in the sector are not public limited companies that they would share their revenues or profits. We can only gauge with their presence in the market. And the presence shows that these collaborations where the entire credit cannot be given to one designer are running into billions of rupees.
The presence can also assessed by the kind of manufacturing taking place in Pakistan, and the kind of scale fashion and retail is occupying. Designers that have gone into retail can give other people confidence of the capacity of the local market. There are some designers who now don't just want to restrict themselves to smaller high-end fashion; they are reaching out to the masses. It is about setting the right priorities, re-channelling resources, getting banking channels and funds to expand to the retail side.
As a Council, we are first trying to understand what the potential of this industry is. This industry is based on much unorganised levels, so we do not have access to exact statistics. Our back of the envelope calculations suggest that Lahore alone is a hundred million dollar market annually, which includes all income classes. We haven't been able to adequately cater to this industry, primarily due to the lack of access to adequate funding which has been a major hurdle. PFDC is played a role in alleviating this impediment by engaging partners such as Bank Alfalah, who are developing products that would be accessible to the fashion industry, and FedEx for discounts on international designer consignments under the PFDC umbrella.
BRR: We see a lot of tech incubators coming up. Do you have any such plans for the fashion industry?
SS: Indeed. Obviously we have our financial and resource constraints, but we are working on it. We are also working on getting the concerned bodies involved and generating interest of the government and other bodies through our export potential. For this we first have to groom the fashion industry to get their businesses and infrastructures aligned.
BRR: What segments of fashion are you catering besides the garments industry?
SS: By fashion industry we mean men's wear, women's wear, accessories, footwear. In garments, we have ready to wear, high-end fashion, and bridals. We have also been approached by the leather garment industry, an industry which needs to be highlighted further as they cannot sell their standard style leather jackets anymore. You need the design element there as well, as the older format is no longer competitive, and we must make use of our leather in value added products.
We are also working to some extent with the craft clusters formed by the government somewhere between five to ten years ago. These are clusters of the most beautiful craft all over Pakistan - around 240 clusters from Haripur, Bahawalpur, Muzafargarh, Hyderabad, and many more - all documented and still existing. This is where we are focusing our energies now
BRR: How is the fashion industry contributing on the exports front?
SS: I would say we have a considerable presence in the region - particularly Dubai and India. These destinations are very lucrative for us as they can appreciate our kind of work and intricacies of the products. We have given our franchise to a retailer in India; it's a huge PFDC standalone store in south extension, New Delhi. It houses about 30-40 Pakistani designers. Then there are many designers that have presence online and they ship their products overseas.
BRR: What are your plans as a fashion expert and enthusiast, and where do you see this industry going over the next decade?
SS: Ten years from now, I see a far more disciplined industry; one where the designers realise that this is not about social entertainment, or seeking patronage from the government, or stitching a handful of clothes on order, but instead that this is about the business of fashion; about having the discipline to create two distinct collections a year that communicate one's own unique style aesthetic. Creativity comes naturally to our nation's youth - and we have some hugely talented young men and women just waiting for the right encouragement.
The Council's role is to not only help existing designers, but to provide this encouragement to budding talent. We want to nurture their creative spirit. At the same time, the Council's role is one of education - to educate our designers on the importance of creating distinct brands; to educate them on the importance of institutionalising the fashion industry, of bringing it into the commercial realm.
Also it is time that we inculcate in our designers, and the fashion community at large, the importance of getting some national and international interest. And with all the experience I have, it is just the right time for me to give back to the industry that has given me so much.