When Gulabo met Cinderella

It all started in 1997, when she assisted Bafta award-winning costume designer Diane Holmes in creating Ratti Jinnah and Fatima Jinnah’s wardrobes for the movie Jinnah. This lead to the launch of the ‘Embroidery House’ — a teamwork where Diane would commission the embellishments of costumes and set-designs to Maheen.

Their first job was for the BBC serial The Artistocrats, followed by embroideries for the Catherine Walker & Co design atelier’s seasonal collections. Recent projects include designing costumes for the movies Alexander, Snow White and the Huntsmen and Maleficent as well as a regal coat and waistcoat set for King Louis the XIth’s wax sculpture at London’s Madame Tussaud’s.

“The coats for Cinderella are all hand-crafted,” says Maheen, “although there are some jobs that have required machine embroideries. In Alexander, for instance, a lot of the sets had to be extensively machine embroidered.”

And while Maheen enjoys the process of creating these predominantly period embroideries, she admits that it’s also a tough learning experience. “Very detailed instructions along with the marked fabric come with the final order,” she explains. “The sampling is where all my skills come into play as I have to interpret the designs in at least three to six ways, if not more. There are strict quality controls and even stricter timelines.”

Even so, Maheen’s collaborations with the West call attention to an avenue that is ripe for other local designers to also explore. While our nascent designing fraternity may still need to get a grasp over the standardisation of sizes and the fine finishing that is an absolute necessity for retailing internationally, there is one thing that Pakistan has long nailed: our craft. Fromrilli to kanta, machine embroideries to tediously worked kamdani and marori, block-prints to dip-dyed bases, Pakistan’s inherent craftsmanship is undeniably stand-out and unique. And while the Western world may already be commissioning leather creations and basic cotton apparel to our textile industries, it is yet to see what other wonders our crafty expertise has to offer.

Whenever Pakistani craftsmanship has come to the fore internationally, it’s been a hit. Handbag label ‘Polly&me’ made waves with its traditional chitrali handiwork.

Maheen Khan, even as she puts the finishing touches to her Karachi-centric finale for the upcoming Fashion Pakistan Week, continues to provide her embroidering services to Hollywood. This may be a sign of bigger, better things to come.