We tend to associate people of the fashion industry with friction, catfights and vicious professional rivalry. What we rarely hear about is how (some) designers can rise above petty politics to help each other out in a time of crises.
We tend to associate people of the fashion industry with friction, catfights and vicious professional rivalry. What we rarely hear about is how (some) designers can rise above petty politics to help each other out in a time of crises.
This is what happened. Shehla Chatoor was opening Day Two of the recently concluded Fashion Pakistan Week and celebrity model Amna Ilyas was confirmed to be Chatoor’s finale model; the finale ensemble was measured and fitted perfectly to her size. On the morning of the same day, the model called and cancelled, citing dehydration and poor health as the reason why she couldn’t catch the flight from Lahore to Karachi. The show was that very evening. Anyone who knows Shehla Chatoor will know how finicky she is about fittings and finish and the finer details of every single garment she designs; to have someone else wear her finale outfit was not just inconvenient but also impossible since Ilyas is extremely petite and tall and not many models can fit into her clothes. The only one who could was Mehreen Syed, but Mehreen was in the other pool of models and was scheduled to walk for the following show, Huma Adnan’s FnkAsia.
“I made a call to Huma, asking her if we could use her finale model and to her credit, she offered her help without a moment’s hesitation,” Salim Chatoor shared the anecdote with Instep. “I may not have been so gracious had someone asked me, I’m embarrassed to admit, but Huma was so large hearted that it was a lesson for all of us. She whole heartedly came to our rescue.”
