Pakistan’s top ten designer lawn collections 2016

The Designer lawn collections that are on our wish list in 2016

Pakistani designer lawn is big business, to the point where it seems like every aira ghaira nathu khaira is releasing a signature lawn. Some bloggers and magazines have been known to gush “the wait is finally over” for lawn by random ‘designers’ no-one has ever heard of, but not here at Karachista. For us designer lawn is only worth the name if the label has a distinct identity in the fashion world.

Designer lawn is a bit of an oxymoron: it’s a mass market product with distinct design constraints making it challenging even for the most experienced designers. That’s perhaps the reason why this year has seen a distinct fall in the number of labels putting out lawn collections – Ayesha Farook Hashwani, HSY and several others are not doing lawn this year. Nida Azwer, like last year, is focusing on in-house lawn kurtas rather than putting out a traditional 3-piece line and Sania Maskatiya has chosen to go the same route this year.

There are, however, both stalwarts and newbies releasing designer lawn this year in Pakistan. This is our list of the designer lawns that we have loved this year or are looking forward to this year based on the teasers released so far.

Sana Safinaz Lawn 2016

The undisputed queens of lawn, Sana Safinaz were the pioneers of designer lawn and are still market leaders, producing and selling three times as much as anyone else, with fans across the world. This season’s collection comes out on 21^st March and their campaign, like last year’s, features Amna Baber. They’ve kept their teasers limited to avoid replicas but this tree of life kantha-style design is particularly striking

Elan Lawn 2016

Arguably one of the most sought-after designer lawns, Elan is invariably sold out within a couple of days. This year’s campaign shot in Morocco by NFK, features Indian model Nidhi Sunil. With high-street brands and other labels channeling Elan of yesteryear, Khadijah Shah has moved on yet again if this year’s teasers are anything to go by. From folk embroidery to popping colourful dupattas, as well as more traditional Elan designs, this collection looks interesting.

Ali Xeeshan Lawn 2016

You’d never expect anything run-of the-mill from the quirky Ali Xeeshan and his lawn certainly looks refreshingly different. The first D&G-esque teasers have left fashion editors up and down the country drooling. Bold, colourful and different, this is one lawn everyone wants to get their hands on.

Shehla Chatoor Lawn 2016

The uber-stylish Shehla does lawn for the first time this year, which is a bit of a surprise because her Eastern pret is legendary. Lawn is almost a natural progression. Expect intricacy, classical motifs from various cultures and balanced colour combinations. The BTS shots from Bangkok, with Bollywood actress Nargis Fakhri, have oozed style. We genuinely can’t wait for this one.

Zara Shahjahan Lawn 2016

Zara Shahjahan is a designer who’s consistently been putting out popular lawn collections. This year’s collection is entitled Noor-Bano and the campaign features actress Saira Yousaf. The designs draw inspiration from traditional ajrak, block print and vintage motifs with a distinctly sub-continental feel.

Zainab Chottani Lawn 2016

Lakhany Silk Mills is one of the pioneers of designer lawn, having worked with Sana Safinaz, Zunn and Farah Talib Aziz. Embroidery has always been one of their key strengths and Zainab Chottani is another designer who can play to that strength. This is Zainab’s second year with them and she adapted well to the medium – to the point where other mills have invented phantom “Chottani” designers to front their lawn eg Ayesha Chottani.

Nilofer Shahid Lawn 2016

Nilofer Shahid is another designer tackling lawn for the first time and, based on the BTS pictures and her ramp presentation for Ittehad, she’s taken a characteristically original approach to the medium. What we’ve seen of the prints and the colour combinations is intriguing – though considering it’s Ittehad, we reserve judgement till we’ve seen it in person (remember how poorly they translated Fahad Hussayn’s collection from a few years ago?!)

Feeha Jamshed Lawn 2016

Feeha Jamshed is releasing her debut collection with Flitz this year. It’s very exciting to see a designer as original and quirky as Feeha work with lawn. Recent prints from her design house have included a psychedelic cassette print and chic monochromatic rose polka-dot.

Flitz has previously worked with Ayesha Somaya, aiming for the medium-priced range of the designer lawn market. While this does very well, it does mean a compromise on fabric quality, which I hope is not the case with Feeha.

Farah Talib Aziz Lawn 2016

Farah Talib Aziz put out two lawn collections last year with Lakhany and has now signed on as creative head of a new brand, Crimson. They’re starting with lawn and opening outlets with both fabric and pret later this summer. Farah has chosen actress Sanam Saeed as the face of her lawn and her campaign is particularly striking. She’s featured doves, white rabbits and other fauna in an ethereal shoot. (the animals were scrupulously looked after, the team confirms). Farah’s elegant feminine aesthetic translates particularly well to lawn and she’s quickly gaining fervent following.

Faraz Manan Lawn 2016

Faraz Manan is one of the stalwarts of designer lawn. He’s always gained plenty of attention with Kareena Kapoor as the face of his lawn and his lawn has improved a lot over the years. Designer lawn can often look very different in real life compared to what it looks like in shoots: photographers are often guilty of tweaking the colours wildly. Though this was a real problem with Faraz Manan lawn in past year, this has improved of late. His was one of the first designer lawn collections of the year, releasing on 1^st March, and has done very well.