Pakistani brands at Paris Fashion Week’s Tranoi

Twice a year, Tranoi takes place in prestigious locations in the heart of Paris and brings together high fashion designers and market-leading buyers. This year, four brands from Pakistan showcased their high-end fashion products including dresses, bags and home accessories at the four-day trade show from September 27 to 30, 2019. The first season with home grown brands took place in February, earlier this year.

While no one denies the importance of consistently showcasing at fashion weeks, trade shows are equally important. This outing for Pakistani brands came about through a partnership between Tranoi and L’Adresse, an agency owned by Amal Sultan, a Pakistani settled in Paris. She sources Pakistani brands and helps them showcase at Tranoi A/W (February) and S/S (September). Her agency is a brand development agency that fosters relationships within the global fashion community and living in the midst of it all, Sultan has a solid understanding of brand operations there. She is committed to nurturing independent emerging designers from our part of the world by offering them growth opportunities.

The current brands that have shown in A/W and S/S are House of Cali, a design house from Karachi that creates handcrafted cushions; Zuria Dor, a brand from Lahore also focusing on handcrafted embellishment and design; Hussain Rehar, a wunderkind who’s established himself as a covetable brand in a short period of time, as well as Warp, a brand for bags that are minimal and unique in their design. Ahsan Nazir is another brand that showed – relatively newer – but with a cool collection that Sultan is working on rebranding with him, along with Lyner, a jewelry brand designed in London but handcrafted all over the world.

We wondered what Amal looks for when putting together brands for the trade show. “The selection criteria is quite comprehensive and requires a strong brand DNA and identity that has a global appeal,” she shares. “In the future, I would like to bring young and emerging RTW, accessories and lifestyle brands, that shouldn’t limit their clientele or be region specific. I would also love to have fresh graduates showcase their brands in its initial stage as this platform is not only a learning experience for them but would also help them understand the kind of international competition they have, and what stores are looking for. Couture brands that are willing to expand into new RTW lines are also suitable for this platform.”

Although it is a paid opportunity, once Amal hones in on brands Tranoi follows merit based selection; the look-book for the season is submitted, which is assessed by Tranoi’s selection committee based on which they decide to grant permission to showcase. With the global arena being the eventual market for any brand that wants to grow, it’s worth looking into showing at a prestigious trade show of of this nature.

Madiha Latif flew to Paris for the A/W leg of the trade show to represent her brand Zuria Dor. She said about her experience, “For us, all experiences and interactions on global platforms provide learning. Meeting buyers from across regions as well as exchanging of ideas and networking with other exhibitors adds to knowledge building. In an increasingly connected world, platforms like Tranoi are integral for young brands wanting to be discovered and increasing their international footprint.”

When asked if it was beneficial, Latif shared, “We have generated leads, which we will follow up. With trade shows, it’s imperative that we keep showing each season as that is a key signal of our seriousness to buyers.”

Amal Sultan shares that this year the House of Cali, managed to get stocked through Tranoi at one of the biggest high-end boutiques in Paris, L’Eclaireur, on Rue Saint Honore. We look forward to having more Pakistani brands find inroads to businesses abroad and represent Pakistan in Paris.