Pakistani designer Yasmeen Jiwa debuts at Paris Fashion Week

Designer Yasmeen Jiwa debuted at the prestigious Paris Fashion Week Fall 2018 platform this weekend.

Jiwa was the only designer from Pakistan to showcase her collection at the fashion week in Paris held from February 27 to March 6. The group show featuring the designer's collection took place on March 3 at the Intercontinental Le Grand, Paris.

The designer was invited by British company Oxford Fashion Studio to represent Pakistan. “We were invited in June last year to participate in New York Fashion Week in September 2017 by Oxford Fashion Studio -- an independent organisation based in London who scout independent/ upcoming designers from around the world to participate in fashion weeks in London, New York, Milan, and Paris,” Maheen who manages Public Relations of Yasmin Jiwa told Geo.TV.

“We realised that we will not be ready for September season so we opted for February in Paris and were luckily granted it,” she added.

“As this was our first ever show we wanted to take baby steps in which we opted to go for a group show, we shared our show with other international designers from Indonesia, India, Norway and Canada,” Maheen further shared. 

The collection titled ‘Qous-e-Qazah’ was a mix of modern edgy silhouettes with traditional embroideries such as mirror, thread, lace, cut work and sequence.

“The brand Yasmeen Jiwa has always believed in weightless glamour which is not very common in our industry,” Maheen said. Seeking to keep the colour palette as original as possible, the inspiration for the collection was ‘Qous-e-Qazah’ and they worked with sky blues, silver grays, and blue grays with bursts of rich reds and citruses.

“The collection was given a great deal of praise by the media and buyers present at the show. It really opened the door to new international opportunities and definitely exceeded our expectations tenfold,” she added.

Speaking about the show, Jiwa said, “I've always been a private person and have always enjoyed my private clientele, I knew that if I ever did a show it really had to be different from anything I’ve done before and I feel this was the perfect platform for me as I got the opportunity to meet people from all around the world.”

“The venue was one of the most beautiful venues one could ever ask for. I was also extremely impressed by the organisers the level of professionalism was extremely refreshing," the designer said.