ISLAMABAD: Hum Showcase, an annual fashion event which garners praise every year as an innovative couture platform for both high-street and high-end designers, concluded in Karachi this weekend. For three days, Pakistani designers lit up the catwalk with their carefully curated collections, a spectacle that embraced all the colors of the rainbow and schooled the audience in the art of color theory. Most of these collections will eventually be toned down for commercial retail, but their three evenings on the ramp were pure, uninhibited couture, with palette combinations that were not always for the faint of heart.
Not-So-Mellow Yellow
There was a medley of yellows on the ramp- in unabashed mustard, pretty pastel shades, blazing ombres. Yellow was undoubtedly the color of star-shine with designers like Emraan Rajput, Khaadi Khas, Sublime by Sara and Wardha Saleem giving their collections a heady sun treatment with what appears to be the trendiest color in summer’s fashion cycle.
Paint The Town Red
Red was just a short distance away from the ramp’s leading yellows and was splashed generously across the ramp on all three nights of the showcase. The reds were best and most creatively accomplished by the daring silhouettes of 9Lines, Hussain Rehar and Wardha Saleem.
Purple Haze
From the saturated dark hues of Jazib Qamar’s menswear ramp to the pretty lilacs from Natasha Kamal, purple had its day in the bright lights! Designers like Zonia Anwar and Sana Safinaz played with feminine purples and hit all the right notes for a resort collection.
Lean and green
From muted olives to metallic silks, one of this season’s reigning color champions is green. Bold shades of verdant green colored the ramp delightfully packaged in the collections of Deepak & Fahad, and Mahgul who used a particularly memorable shock of green juxtaposed against a white shirt. Western-wear brand Outfitters showed off the color in a boiler suit no less, and Sana Safinaz did not hold back on the audacious lime!
Pink About It
Pink has partly undergone a revamp after its many years ruling the landscape in the famed shades of millennial pink. 9Lines and Khaadi Khas brought the shockingly pink neons to the runway over the weekend, Mahgul opted for a muted tea pink, and Zonia Anwar gave some of her best looks the pinky-rose treatment.
Happy Blues
Across menswear and womenswear collections, from professional wear to spring-time resort lines, blue remains the pillar of this year’s fashion runways, and Pakistani designers paid their own homage to it with panache. Designer Hasan Shehryar Yasin presented a number of blue looks in varying shades from royal to navy, menswear designer Munib Nawaz cleverly contrasted a striped navy and white shirt with a navy plaid suit and Zaheer Abbas, undoubtedly one of the most innovative designers on the showcase runway, gave hints of periwinkle in a sky blue gown.
Three eclectic nights of the hum showcase closed with one profuse feeling of optimism: that the scorching summer months ahead might have been partly off-set by the daring seasonal interpretations of Pakistan’s finest couturiers. The kaleidoscope of fearless color which mirrored many of the takeaways of fashion week some days earlier confirm that in Pakistan, at least some things in the coming months will shine brighter than the sun.