Fashion week begins as bombers hit Pakistan

Models present creations by Sana Safinaz during a Fashion Week in Karachi.–AFP Photo

KARACHI: Pakistan began a new fashion week with an opulent opening ceremony in Karachi on Monday, hours after militants killed dozens of people in bomb attacks in the northwest.

Participants held a one-minute silence to mourn the attacks in Peshawar and Lower Dir.

The event is scheduled to feature 52 designers — 49 of them from Pakistan and one each from Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates — in a follow-up to a first event held in Karachi last November.

“The fashion week has started and will continue until Friday,” organiser Tehmina Khaled told AFP.

“Security concerns keep designers and models from the West away from Pakistan, yet we have succeeded this time to get some professionals from Asia to participate,” Khaled said.

“On the one hand terrorists are attacking our country with bombings and on the other, by organising events like this, we are trying to portray a softer image of Pakistan abroad,” she added.

Models will sashay down catwalks, flaunting the latest creations by designers in the nuclear-armed Muslim nation, where most women cover up and observe varying degrees of Islamic dress.

The fashion event is taking place in the southern port city of Karachi, considered a cosmopolitan city in Pakistan, complete with glitzy shopping malls and a thriving cafe culture.—AFP

Source: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/culture/16-pakistan+fashion+week+begins+as+bombers+hit+northwest-hs-04