Editorial

For women in Pakistan, summers were a lot simpler before the designer lawns invaded their imagination. It’s not that women were taken aback with their arrival; they were the ones who asked for it.

It’s been a gradual journey -- from those eternal floral and geometric patterns on a cooler fabric that flooded the market come summer time to the almost tyrannical three-piece suits to the current phase of high-end stitched kurtas and unstitched designer fabric that has revolutionised Pakistan’s textile industry. Add to these the copies and the copy of the copies and this could be one of the most lucrative businesses to have emerged in the country in recent years.

A slightly deeper look at the lawn industry and you are surprised to know that, contrary to what many people think, the raw material for the designer lawns -- cotton and yarn -- is all imported. But that’s where it ends; the value addition is all done here in the country.

And then some of is ready to cross the borders again -- largely to the Gulf countries with similar climate. The trade restriction with India is a big dampener, considering the consistent demand for Pakistani lawn there -- earlier for its sheer good quality and now for the superior designs. One can only imagine the economies of scale available if this trade were allowed to take place.

The big boost in the journey came, of course, with the involvement of trained designers who took the whole lawn business to another level. In some cases, all that the industry (and its bunch of trained designers who were not brand names yet) needed was a name to sell its product and that’s when they started picking a top model to sell their product. From models to televangelists was only a matter of time.

The industry-designer collaboration obviated the need for sophisticated marketing. The television advertisements of yore were then backed up with glossy catalogues and billboards and a whole new world of cyber space. No wonder, this time around, women had pre-booked their prized designs and many of the lawn brands sold their entire stocks in online transactions. Smart marketing technique, one must say.

From cloth manufacturing and import to stitching, dyeing and embroidery, from entrepreneurs to trained designers to more design schools to ordinary and skilled labour, the lawn business has kept the wheels of economy moving.

And yet, away from all this hype, is a set of women in the country who have shunned the lawn mania and managed to keep their own sense of style. They, too, must be counted, just for being able to resist it all.